What Makes A Harmony
by pleasant-hell
Summary: Rachel and Quinn both make bets with Puck, but neither one knows. They both set off to win, but end up finding something more than they bargained for.
1. Chapter 1

This has been sitting on my computer for a really long time and I found it a few days ago. After re-reading it, I did a complete rewrite. It takes place between season one and two.

Hope you enjoy.

* * *

Puck huffed. He hated when his mom dragged him to these things. He just sat at the table and stared off into space until a hot girl walked by or he got someone to get him a beer. Unfortunately there were no hot girls or beer at this big Jewish wedding. . Somehow whoever was getting married knew Puck's mom and Rachel's dads so they both got drug along. Now they were sitting with their chairs facing in opposite directions, pushing the food around on their plates and sighing.

He turned sideways in his chair and looked at her, "Didn't I see you at the gym yesterday?"

She nodded and turned sideways in her chair. She looked out at the dance floor and answered, "Yeah. My elliptical broke so I go to the gym everyday at four to avoid peek hours." She finally turned to him, "How's your pool cleaning business going?"

He shrugged, finally looking directly at her, "It's going good. I've moved to in-ground pools so I'm making more money, but it's more work." He looked over her dress and commented, "That's the first almost sexy thing I've ever seen you in."

Rachel frowned, "It is not."

He nodded, "You keep looking like that you may finally get some.

She turned her head away from him, suddenly on the pissed side of her diva mood swings, "I don't need sexy clothes to seduce anyone."

He snorted, "You? Seduce anyone? Who even says seduce?"

Now she was really offended, "I can seduce anyone. I just don't ever want to."

"Really now?"

"Yes!" she stated indignantly, incurring more attention than she wanted at the moment. She lowered her voice, "I can seduce anyone."

"Nuh uh."

"I could," she glared at him.

Puck picked at the tablecloth, "Care to make it interesting?"

"How interesting?" Rachel asked, slightly intrigued.

"Fifty bucks," he shrugged. He was a little light on cash at the moment so fifty would probably bankrupt him if he lost, but he was positive he wouldn't. He had the perfect, most difficult person in mind.

"Deal," Rachel reached over and shook his hand, "What are the conditions of this bet?"

"Hook up with Quinn before school starts," he leaned forward like he was giving her a top-secret mission. He rested his forearms on his knees.

Rachel looked hard at Puck before adding, "Define hook up."

"Make out…and cop a feel. A good one. Not one of those whoops I touched your boobs kinda things," he explained.

"Okay," Rachel nodded. She was soaking up his every word and he was started to wonder when she was going to whip out a notepad and start taking notes.

"For real?" he asked. It seemed too good to be true.

Rachel watched her dads start to walk toward the door. That was her cue. She stood up, "Why not?"

"By the first day of school," he called after her.

She nodded, continuing her walk to her fathers. She wasn't sure what possessed her to make a deal with Puck. She didn't think she could actually do it, but she was going to try her damnedest. Her life had taken a very boring turn since her return from vacation. At least now she had something to work towards.

Puck walked into the gym late the next afternoon. He had just finished cleaning the last pool of the day and seeing Mrs. Feuerstein and her brand new set of knockers in her bikini by the pool had riled him up. He needed to work of some frustration.

He saw a familiar face in the gym and smiled. He walked over to the weight bench next to where Quinn was doing crunches on a blue yoga mat in front of some mirrors. He picked up a couple fifty-pound weights, you know, just to warm up with before taking a seat on the bench next to her.

"Lookin' good," he commented when he saw her see him.

Quinn finished a few more crunches before answering, "I've been working out all summer."

"So is Queen Quinn back?"

She had rolled onto her stomach and was now pushing herself off of the ground with her legs laying flat on the ground, stretching her core. "Hell yes. I will be head Cheerio within two weeks of when school starts. I will have who I want and I will rule the school again."

Oh this was way too easy. Puck slipped in, "You can't have anyone."

"Bet I can." Quinn sat down on and started stretching her legs.

Puck started doing a few reps, watching his biceps flex in the mirror, "Fifty says you can't." He wouldn't mind losing a hundred dollars in order to gain one of the hottest mental images he could think of.

Blonde hair rippled as Quinn hopped to her feet, "Done. Who?"

"Brittany." Puck exhaled as he started alternating arms. He didn't want to be too obvious.

Quinn picked up a jump rope that was next to her on the ground and paused. "Too easy. Plus she's my friend. It'd be weird."

"And Santana would murder you."

"That too." She started swinging the jump rope around, only jumping enough to let it pass under her.

After having to rip her eyes away from Quinn's sports bra clad torso as she jumped, he looked at himself in the mirror, "Rachel."

Quinn stopped jumping, the rope hitting the front of her ankles. She tilted her head slightly and had an intense look of deep thought on her face, "A challenge. I like it. Deal."

"I saw her working out here a few days ago. Her elliptical broke or something so she comes everyday at four. Good luck." Puck reracked the weights and wiped off the bench with his towel.

As he was walking off he heard, "I don't need luck. I'm Quinn Fabray."

Quinn had had enough jump roping so she looked at the huge clock on the wall. It was only eleven so she had some time. She decided that she'd come back and work out later. At four o'clock to be exact. She expected to be fifty dollars richer by six o'clock. She was Quinn Fabray after all.

Finn was sitting on the couch next to Rachel in his living room, playing a video game. Rachel looked bored, but he was so close to leveling up that he had to keep on it until he did.

"I made a bet with Noah."

He frowned and looked away from the game to look at her.

She crossed her legs and looked a little nervous, "It's not that bad."

"What is the bet?" Finn asked, as his on screen character died. He respawned and started playing again hoping that whatever Rachel bet wouldn't put a damper on their relationship. It was hard enough dating Rachel as it was without the threat of Puck hanging over them…again.

"That I could…seduce Quinn."

Finn bursts out laughing. He laughed so hard that he gave up on the match and exited the online room.

"What's so funny?" Rachel asked, sounding a little hurt and a lot pissed.

Finn realized down that sounded and added, "It's not that I don't think you could like seduce a guy or maybe even Brittany, but Quinn? She's like super straight."

Rachel nodded, but explained, "I read that at our age everyone is prone to experimentation, especially girls. It's perfectly natural for her to want to…explore another girl."

"But she kinda hates you." Finn put the controller down and put his arm on the back of the couch.

"Maybe it's time that we become friends." Rachel was desperately trying to make it sound less crazy than it was.

"How are you going to do that?"

"I don't know yet."

He shrugged and picked up the controller again, "Well good luck."

"So it's okay with you?"

He started another match and answered, staring at the TV. "Sure. It's not like you're going to be able to pull it off."

Rachel was, once again, pissed off. A defiant streak in her came out, "Wanna bet?"

"Seriously?"

"Yes. Fifty dollars."

Finn smiled as he shook his head, "Alright." There was no way that Rachel was going to be able to do it. Although if she did…uh oh. He stood up and ran to the bathroom mumbling, "Mailman, mailman…" the whole way there.

Rachel knew what was going on and stood up. She looked at her phone. It was time for her to get to the gym anyway. She texted Finn to let him know she was leaving and walked out the front door.

Rachel disliked working out at a public gym. It's not that she minded other people looking at her. It was that she couldn't watch her favorite musicals or sing out loud. She had to make a playlist specifically filled with songs she could keep herself from singing. Luckily, this was a temporary thing. Her new elliptical was on its way.

When she got to the gym, she got her bag out of the trunk of her car and walked in. She scanned herself in and went to the locker room. After placing her things in one of the lockers, she got out her iPod and made her way out into the gym. She was deep in thought on the elliptical trying to figure out how to even make contact with Quinn. Should she ask her to go see a movie or throw some kind of party and invite everyone or something? This might be harder than she initially thought.

Quinn walked into the gym from the locker room feeling a little self-conscious. She'd gotten rid of most of her baby weight, but the last five pounds were still making her feel like a blimp. She'd been coming to this gym every weekday morning for a little over a month and she was still nervous before each workout.

But when she spotted Rachel on the elliptical machine she grinned. This was going to be the easiest fifty bucks she'd ever made.

She made her way to the row of bicycles in front of the ellipticals. She pretended like she didn't see Rachel and sunk into the vinyl seat. She pressed a few buttons and started to pedal, looking up at one of the many TVs on the wall.

When Rachel saw Quinn, but she didn't quite believe it. There were multiple gyms in Lima, yet here Quinn was, like a present from the gambling gods. She grinned. This might be easier than she thought.

Rachel continued to work out for a few more minutes and then got off the machine. She airily moved to the bicycles, turning her ipod a little louder than normal. Settling on a bike two away from Quinn, Rachel glanced up at the TV.

Quinn looked over at Rachel who was either blind or pretending not to see her. In either case Quinn turned and said, "Hey Rachel."

The singer apparently didn't see her because she kept bobbing her head to her music and peddling away. So Quinn sighed and moved to the machine next to Rachel, tapping the brunette on the shoulder.

Rachel looked at her and let out her superstar smile, taking out one ear bud, "Oh hey Quinn. I didn't know you came here."

"I usually come earlier, but I overslept," Quinn stated, "What are you doing here?"

"My elliptical machine at home broke," Rachel explained, "So how's your summer been going?"

"Mostly working out," Quinn replied, "I need to if I'm going to make it back on the Cheerios."

"You're trying out again?"

Quinn nodded, "I'm trying to get my life back to normal."

"Oh," Rachel looked a little dejected.

Quinn quickly added, "I'm still going to do glee and stuff."

The brunette nodded, still a little glumly, "I understand."

"Why do you look like I ran over your dog?" Quinn huffed, starting to get a little frustrated with Rachel.

"It's just that…before you got kicked off the Cheerios, you instigated a lot of slushies to turn my way," Rachel answered honestly and evenly.

Quinn softened a little, "Well, I'm not going to promise to keep them away from you, but I won't tell anyone to slushy you if you stop trying to steal my boyfriends, deal?" She let out a playful smile. There was no way she was going to win this bet if she didn't at least try to extend a friendly hand to Rachel.

The diva looked cautiously at Quinn before nodding, "Deal."

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Rachel asked, "When are Cheerio try-outs?"

The blonde looked suspiciously at Rachel, "Thinking of trying out."

"No," Rachel quickly added, "I was just wondering when you go to see if you're back on."

"Well," Quinn took a deep breath, "I've been crashing their summer Saturday practices for three weeks and last week Coach didn't yell at me until I gave up and started running around the track, so it shouldn't be long until I'm back on the team. I give it like two more weeks."

"Wow," Rachel looked down at her iPod, "You must really love being on the Cheerios."

"I need all the normal I can get," Quinn answered, a little off handedly.

Rachel looked over at Quinn as caught the tail end of some fleeting longing. "Well you know, if you ever need to like talk or anything, I'm a good listener sometimes. You won't have to worry about me telling anyone because they won't believe that you talked to me in the first place."

Quinn let out an amused grin. "Thanks." She looked Rachel over for a minute, her eyes running down Rachel's long, tan legs that were pumping away at the bicycle. Then her eyes made her way back to Rachel's face. Quinn stood up and patted Rachel's shoulder, "C'mon let's go get a smoothie."

Rachel looked confused, but followed Quinn. As she followed Quinn into the locker room, she let out a sly grin. How surprised would Puck and Finn be if she sealed this deal tonight?


	2. Chapter 2

Rachel was in her car following Quinn to the smoothie place by their school. She was trying to formulate a plan as she drove, when she realized that she knew almost nothing about Quinn. She pulled out her phone and placed a quick call.

"Tell me something about Quinn," Rachel said into the phone.

"No way," Finn chuckled, "I bet against you remember?"

"C'mon Finn. Throw me a bone," Rachel pleaded in the most pathetic voice she could muster, "I'm trying really hard."

"Fine," Finn's voice was still really amused, "What do you want to know?"

Rachel sighed, slightly relieved, "What's her favorite flower?"

"Um…I uh…" Finn stuttered for the answer.

Rachel bit her lip, "What's her favorite song?"

"Metallica?"

The brunette's eyes narrowed at the wrong answer. She asked one of the most simple questions anyone in a relationship should know, "What's her favorite color?"

She was met with silence.

Then she asked, "What's _my_ favorite color?"

"Oh I um…" Finn was grasping at straws, "Gold?"

"Wrong," Rachel said into the phone and hung up. She was beginning to think Quinn was justified in sleeping with Puck.

"It's okay," Rachel told herself, "I can wing it."

When they pulled into the parking lot of the smoothie place, Rachel glanced at herself in the mirror and took a deep breath. She got out and found Quinn waiting for her outside the door.

They silently walked into the small shop. Rachel ordered and waited for Quinn who paid for it before Rachel could protest.

Quinn picked out a small table for two in the back of the shop as they waited for their smoothies. Rachel slowly sat down, trying to think of something to talk about.

The blonde was equally struggling for something to say. She drummed her fingers on the table and let out a relieved sigh when the person working there brought them their smoothies.

Finally Rachel broke the silence as Quinn sipped her pink drink, "It occurs to me as we sit here in this painfully awkward silence, that I know almost nothing about you."

Quinn looked a little surprised, "Same here." She ran a finger over the rim of her glass adding, "Vegan and Streisand and I think that's about it."

"Well feel free to ask," Rachel took a quick sip of her slightly off white drink, "What's your favorite color? I thought about this on the way over here and called Finn to ask. He had no idea what either of our favorite colors are."

Quinn chuckled, "He never really paid attention to that kind of thing."

"Well I do," Rachel rested her chin in her palm, "What is Miss Fabray's favorite color?"

The blonde looked thoughtfully at her hands on the table with a slight smile on her face, "You know that sort blue, sorta gray color storm clouds are. Like the really horrible looking storm clouds. I guess that sounds really weird." She sighed and looked back at Rachel, "What about you?"

"Purple," Rachel stated simply, "What's your favorite TV show?"

"The Office," Quinn grinned, "I watch it every time it's on. Yours?"

Rachel paused before stating, "Bewitched. I watched it all the time when I was little and I would watch it whenever it's on now, but I don't think it's on anymore."

Quinn opened her mouth to answer, but the only thing that sounded was her phone. She picked it up and read a text message, her eyes growing wide. "It's Coach Sylvester," Quinn looked up, "I have to go but...Do you want to come over later? We can hang out by the pool."

Rachel eagerly agreed, "What time?"

"Um..." Quinn took Rachel's phone off of the table and punched in her number, "Text me when you're ready to come over. I was just going to hang out after I get home anyway."

Rachel nodded. "Good luck."

"I think I need it," Quinn exhaled with a nervous smile, "I probably won't take very long so text me whenever." With that, Quinn quickly walked out the door and jumped into her car.

Rachel didn't feel like sitting around the shop by herself so she went back home. She needed to get her swimsuit out anyway. However that didn't take as long as she thought it would and she was changed and staring at the clock on her dresser.

Rachel paced around her room trying to decide what time to go over to Quinn's. She didn't want to text too early because Quinn might still be with Coach Sylvester, but she was getting antsy. If you asked her why, she'd tell you it was because of the bet, but she'd know that was a lie.

Finally it had been an hour and a half and Rachel knew if she didn't call soon, there wouldn't be much daylight left. She sent out a quick text to Quinn and the reply was almost immediate. _I'm ready when you are._ Quinn texted her directions to her house and when Rachel first saw it she was sure she took a wrong turn, but she saw Quinn's car in the driveway, confirming that the giant house in front of her was in fact where the blonde lived.

Quinn answered the door in a Cheerio uniform. She let out a smile, "How do I look? I was just trying it on."

"You're back on the team?" Rachel asked, stepping inside.

"I have provisionary status," Quinn answered, closing the door and leading the way up the stairs and to her room, "I get all the perks, but I have to kiss Coach and Santana's asses."

"Why Santana?" Rachel asked when they got to Quinn's room at the top of the stairs. She looked around and was surprised that it was a normal room and not some sort of medieval torture chamber.

"She's the captain and it was her idea to give me probation," Quinn shrugged and walked to her bed where a bikini was laying, "I think coach was just going to let me back on and Santana talked her out of it." She looked down at the bikini as if she were examining a science project. She let out a nervous smile, "I haven't worn one of these in over a year." Something about Quinn's demeanor told Rachel she was a little embarrassed.

"You look amazing for just having a baby," Rachel offered an assuring smile, "I'm sure you'll still look better than me." Rachel threw the last part in, expecting some sort of comeback about how Quinn looked better in a bikini pregnant than she ever would, but none came.

Quinn just bit her lip and looked back at the swimsuit, "How about you go down to the pool and I'll change and be right down?"

Rachel agreed, understanding that Quinn would be a little uncomfortable at first. "Of course."

"It's just down the stairs and to the left. Go through the living room and out the back door."

Rachel nodded and followed the directions. She stepped into the backyard and couldn't help, but notice the huge pool situated in the middle of it. There was a hot tub off to the side and a small waterfall on the other side.

She striped off her shirt and her shorts and walked to the edge. She carefully sat down and put her feet in the water. She wasn't sure how long it had been, but she was starting to wonder if Quinn was ever going to come out.

Just as Rachel was wondering if she'd win the bet if she pretended to drown and Quinn gave her mouth to mouth, she heard the sound of bare feet on concrete running toward her. She ducked and braced herself for the inevitable shove into the pool. However when the feet got really close, the sound disappeared before she heard a splash. She managed to catch the bottom half of Quinn sinking into the water.

When the blonde surface, she had a playful smile on her face, "Are you just going to sit there all day?"

Rachel grinned and pushed herself in to the pool.

Quinn swam around, showing Rachel where all the jets and lights are, explaining what color each light was and saying that she had to stay at least until it got dark so she could see the pool lit up. Rachel identified something in Quinn's eyes that seemed like a little edge of neediness. The more she watched Quinn and how eager Quinn was when she didn't realize it, the more it became clear that Quinn hadn't had a real friend in a long time.

Rachel felt a little queasy at the thought. Here she was trying to get with Quinn to win a bet, when all Quinn wanted was a friend. She sighed and followed Quinn to the wall.

When Quinn heaved herself out of the pool, Rachel was found herself unable to take her eyes off of her. She'd never seen Quinn in such revealing clothes and she didn't know why, but it surprised her.

Quinn walked over to an outdoor stereo by the house and turned on some music. When she turned back to the pool she saw Rachel looking at her. She stopped cold and felt a lump in her throat. And just like every other time she'd been scared or threatened by Rachel she lashed out, "What are you looking at?"

The tone of Quinn's voice as harsh and not something Rachel was unfamiliar with. "I'm sorry." She pushed away from the wall and floated backwards, "I just find it hard to believe that a body that looks like that ever had a baby. Are you sure you weren't faking it?"

Quinn dropped her head, feeling ashamed that she freaked out like she did. Before she could say sorry, a huge wave of water flew out of the pool and hit her. She smiled and ran back to the pool, jumping in like she did when she was little.

It didn't take long for the sunk to sink behind the gate, sending pink streaks shooting across the sky. Rachel looked at Quinn who was sitting on the side of the pool next to her, examining her stomach for any stretch marks that may have gone unnoticed.

"You look great Quinn," Rachel reached over and rested her hand on Quinn's forearm, "Why are you so worried?"

Quinn raised her head and looked across the water that was reflecting the reds and oranges of the setting sun, "I don't know. I just…want everything back to normal."

Rachel couldn't help, but reassure her, "They will."

Quinn looked down at the hand on her arms and felt her arm burn with the touch. A chill ran through her. She didn't like it. Those the kind of feelings got her into the mess she was in, in the first place.

She stood up, out of Rachel's reach and walked over to the switches on the wall, "Ready?"

"Is it dark enough?" Rachel asked back.

The blonde nodded and flipped on the lights. The pool lit up green, blue, and purple. After a few seconds Quinn remembered how to change the color so a few seconds later, the entire pool glowed with a purple hue.

Rachel leaned forward and fell into the water with a tiny splash. She swam to the middle and turned back to Quinn, "It's pretty awesome."

Quinn nodded and sat down next to the pool, dipping her feet in, "You know I almost drowned in here once."

"Really?" Rachel asked and swam to the side of the pool, holding onto the wall next to Quinn's knees.

The blonde nodded, "Yeah. I was like five or six or something and was convinced that I could swim without my floaties. Santana and Brittany were over so I totally had to show off. Anyway I jump in the pool and find out that I can't swim that well after all. Santana jumped in after me and somehow kept me above water long enough for my parents to hear Brittany screaming. My dad jumped into the pool and pulled both of us out." Quinn paused, not sure why she was sharing this story with Rachel. She glanced down at the brunette who was rapt with the story. "Santana brings it up every chance she gets."

Rachel let out an amused smile. "That sounds about right."

Quinn slipped carefully into the water right next to Rachel and just looked at her. They stared at each other for a long moment before the Puck inside of Quinn's head told her to go for it. The Quinn inside Quinn's head felt wrong about it at that moment. Rachel was offering her friendship to Quinn and Quinn was going to sacrifice it for fifty bucks. It didn't sit right with her, but now she was a Cheerio and she now had those expectations looming over her like storm clouds.

Quinn moved herself a little closer to Rachel. The brunette for her part was in utter shock. She knew that look in people's eyes and Quinn had something interesting on her mind.

Rachel had to make a choice. It was now or never. If she was going to go through with the bet this was the perfect time, but if she wasn't she was going to have to fight her body that seemed to already be pushing itself toward Quinn.


	3. Chapter 3

Quinn wondered why she had the strong urge to dunk Rachel under the water. It was the same urge that instigated the slushies and hateful comments Rachel's way. Quinn found the only solution and pushed down on the side of the pool, propelling herself under water which was probably a bad idea because one it made her look kinda weird and two it gave her a really good, long look at Rachel's legs.

She kicked off of the wall and swam underwater to the waterfall, surfacing on the other side of it. She could see Rachel through the falling water, looking at her, but she couldn't tell the expression on Rachel's face.

"C'mon," Quinn called.

She could see Rachel in the purple glow of the pool slowly making her way over. Rachel stopped right before crossing to Quinn's side. They look at each other through the veil of the waterfall for a few moments before Rachel sunk underwater and reappeared inside the small alcove.

This was quite possibly the most romantic place Quinn could think of. It was secluded. There was a waterfall. It was dark, but the soft lights of the pool gave them a dim view of each other. Quinn just couldn't seem to reach over and pull Rachel to her.  
"It's pretty cool under here," Rachel commented while Quinn just sort of looked at her.

Quinn nodded, "This is where we'd hide Brittany when me and her and Santana would play pirates. Brittany was always the damsel in distress. Santana was always the pirate and I was like the cop or something."

"I guess in the end the damsel ran off with the pirate," Rachel tried a joke to ease Quinn. The tension coming off of the blonde was near palpable.

Quinn let out a smile, "I guess she did."

Rachel smiled at Quinn's smile and offered, "Can we try out the hot tub now?"

"Sure," the Cheerio nodded. At least it was the second most romantic place she could think of.

Once in the hot tub they awkwardly sit at opposite ends, the bubbles disrupting the distance of water between them.

Rachel took a deep breath. She'd been trying to build up the courage to execute her plan and now she was almost sure she could do it, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." Quinn nodded.

"How many people have you kissed?"

Quinn wondered if she should go with her default answer or the truth. Instead she opted to answer it with another question, "You first?"

"Four," Rachel answered easily, "if you don't count kisses from plays I've been in."

"Four for me too," Quinn bobbed her head, although she was almost positive there were more, alcohol at parties tended to keep her from remembering or caring to remember brief make out sessions. Four was just counting the people she had kissed more than once.

"Finn, Puck...?" Rachel led her on.

"Mike and Brittany."

Rachel's eyebrows screwed together, "Brittany?"

Quinn shrugged, "One time we were playing spin the bottle at a party and the other time it was just…it was raining and it was kinda like…romantic. She just kissed me."

Rachel paused, mulling over Quinn's answer. The bet was the last thing on her mind but if she had been thinking about it she would have realized how perfect her next question was. "What's it like? Kissing a girl?"

Quinn reached over the side of the hot tub and turned on the lights that were strung over the hot tub, buying herself some time to think it over to articulate her words. Apparently she too had forgotten about the bet. "It was kinda nice. I mean she was really nice about it. Her lips were really soft and she wasn't trying to shove her tongue down my throat. It was kinda like..." She looked over at Rachel and realized how rapt she was.

Quinn's mouth went dry. She knew how easy it would be to just lean over and show her. But something inside of her stopped her, "I could call Brittany. I bet she wouldn't mind."

Rachel looked slightly disappointed which was pretty good for her because inside she was crestfallen. She didn't know why she wanted Quinn's to kiss her so badly. This was a bet. She didn't care for Quinn. The blonde had tormented her for the better part of three years, there was no reason to.

"Quinn!" Her mom called from the back door. The voice startled Quinn out of her trance. Her mom's presence suddenly made her nervous. Like her mom could tell exactly what she had been thinking, "Have you two eaten?"

Quinn called back, "No."

Her mom put a hand on either side of the doorframe, "I made dinner when you're ready and your friend is more than welcome to stay the night."

"Okay." The blonde turned back to Rachel after her mom retreated back inside.

Quinn turned to Rachel, "Sorry. She's like trying to make up for letting my dad kick me out. You don't have to stay the night if you don't want to."

"Do you want me to?"

The blonde looked down in the water, "It's up to you. I mean after we finish eating and whatever it's gonna be really dark and I heard about a party that's going on down the street so I don't think I would want to be driving too late if I was you."

Rachel smiled softly at Quinn's thinly veiled attempt at trying to get her to stay without actually saying she wanted to her to stay and possibly a slight caring about her well-being. "If you don't mind, I think I'll stay. It seems safer that way."

Quinn nodded, satisfied Rachel's answer. "Are you hungry yet?"

"A little," Rachel admitted.

The blonde stood up and crawled out of the water, retrieving two towels from an outdoor cabinet by the back door. She handed one to Rachel who had gotten out behind her. When she realized how close Rachel was, she quickly wrapped the towel around herself, effectively hiding her body.

Quinn could not believe that she blew it. Rachel was practically begging her to win the bet, and her mind got so bogged down and mixed up that she blew it.

Now she was sitting at the table with Rachel and her mom who were chattering away about how school was going and Rachel's career aspirations.

Her mom hemmed and hawed and relayed stories of her college days, singing in lounges until she got married.

Rachel smiled politely, "I guess that explains where Quinn gets her breathtaking voice from."

Quinn's head shot up. Rachel never complimented her voice. Ever. In fact Rachel only talked about her own voice in comparison to Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, and Liza Minnelli. Also the earnestness of the statement surprised her.

Her mom smiled affectionately at her before turning back to Rachel.

Quinn took all the empty plates to the sink while her mom was still telling Rachel stories about singing for people Quinn was sure were just made up.

"Mom," Quinn interrupted when she reentered the dining room.

"Oh I'm sorry I go on," her mom smiled apologetically at Rachel.

"It's perfect alright," Rachel smiled back and stood, "I enjoyed it."

"If you girls need anything let me know."

Quinn turned around and led the way up the stairs and into her room. Once inside, Quinn closed the door and walked over to the TV. She turned it on and grabbed the remote, "We can watch whatever you want to."

Rachel picked up her bag off of the floor, "Okay, but I think I'll change first if that's alright."

The blonde nodded and pointed Rachel to the bathroom.

As soon as Rachel was gone, Quinn ran to her dressed and dug out some cotton shorts and a t-shirt. She quickly changed and laid on the bed, trying to look casual as she watched the TV.

Rachel returned and lowered herself down on the bed next to Quinn.

"So um," Quinn handed the remote to Rachel. The shorter girl took it and started flipping channels, "What are you doing the rest of the week?"

"I'm trying out for the Lime Theatre production of Evita tomorrow afternoon," Rachel answered, "Well I'm officially getting the title role tomorrow. I don't usually have to audition."

"I guess not," Quinn rested her head on the pillow. All of the exercising, swimming, and conniving exhausted her.

Rachel started talking about the play and the director and the lighting and didn't stop until she realized Quinn had fallen asleep. Rachel let out a small smile and pulled the blankets over Quinn before snuggling in and falling asleep in the glow of the TV.

Quinn's eyes slowly fluttered open at a little after two a.m. She looked over at Rachel who was peacefully sleeping on the far side of the bed. Her eyes traced every line and curve of Rachel's face in the flickering light of the TV.

She sighed heavily and fell back onto her pillow. She turned on her side and curled a little bit at the waist so that she could see the TV. She picked up the remote that was resting between them and started flipping the channels. She stopped when she saw the opening title sequence for Bewitched.

Quinn looked over at Rachel and then back at the TV. She didn't know if she should wake up Rachel or just let her sleep. She thought about how she would feel if Rachel let her sleep through her favorite show that she could never find on.

"Hey Rach," Quinn whispered.

Rachel's eyes quickly fluttered open.

"Your favorite show is on," Quinn watched as Rachel rubbed her eyes.

Rachel let out a tired smile. There was something adorably childlike about it. Rachel folded her pillow in two and laid down on it, watching the TV show.

Quinn scooted a little closer to Rachel and looked back at the TV.

As the show went on, Quinn was having more and more of a problem keeping her eyes open. She was in an exhausted euphoric state where everything was blurry and sounds were distorted. She dozed off for about ten minutes and woke up as she end credits started rolling.

"Thanks Quinn," Rachel looked at the blonde and saw how tired she was. She gently brushed some hair out of Quinn's face, "Go to sleep."

The blonde nodded, her eyes half closed. She tilted her head back and her lips came into contact with Rachel's chin. Instinctively she moved her lips up the short space to Rachel's lips, giving her a chaste kiss before snuggling into her side and sinking into a deep sleep.

Rachel was a lot more conscious about what happened and was more awakened by it. She looked down at Quinn and let out a small sigh.

Almost sleeping Quinn mumbled something to the effect of 'five now' before completely becoming lost in sleep.

The brunette stayed up another half an hour wondering how much of this Quinn would remember in the morning. Finally exhaustion overcame and leaving her problem to ponder in the morning.


	4. Chapter 4

_I'm going for a run. Wanna go?_ was the text that woke Quinn up. She cursed Puck and his early morning run for waking her up, although she thought that she probably should go. She rolled out of the bed and walked to the full-length mirror hanging on her open closet door.

When she saw herself in the mirror she saw more than she wanted to. She wasn't fat by any means, but she didn't look like she used to. The more she exercised, the more she realized that the change wasn't in her body. It was in her face. More specifically her eyes. She just couldn't quite put a finger on what.

She lifted her shirt and examined her abs. They were steadily becoming more defined as the summer went on which was good and bad. She wanted them to be defined without being etched. Girls with etched abs were gross in her opinion. She gently pressed down on them, finding them firm, but still a bit soft. She put her shirt down and sighed. She probably should go on that run with Puck.

A soft groan came from the bed as the second occupant rolled over into the middle of the bed. Quinn's head whipped toward the bed and saw the slightly mussed hair of Rachel sticking out from under the white blanket. She completely forgot that Rachel was there.

Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. She brought her fingers to her lips and felt them, while trying to remember what Rachel's reaction was. She was still in the bed, which she guessed was a good thing. She couldn't believe that she kissed Rachel in her half-sleep. It's not like that wasn't the whole plan to begin with. It's just that…that was definitely not how it was supposed to go. It didn't matter though. She had won the bet. Her bet with Puck was to 'have' Rachel. The girl was asleep in her bed and she kissed her. There's not much more to 'have' than that.

Quinn picked up her phone and pulled up the camera. She quickly snapped a picture of Rachel sleeping in her bed and sat down in her desk chair to send it to Puck. However, before she could even insert his phone number, the picture made her freeze. The peace and innocence of what she had captured on the phone was stunning. She stared at the picture so long that when she closed her eyes she could still see it.

She put her phone on the desk and shot out of the chair. She b-lined for the bathroom and started the shower. She just needed to rationally think this over because a year ago there would have been no hesitation in sending that to Puck and now she couldn't even freakin' tear her eyes away from the picture.

Rachel slowly woke up in the sunlight that was streaming through the window. After a long stretch, she looked around the room. It was obvious that Quinn was gone.

She grabbed her phone off of the ground next to the bed. Finn had texted her. She opened it and found an apology for yesterday and a _how's it going with Quinn?_ She closed her phone with a huff and rolled back into the bed burrowing under the covers.

So technically she didn't win the bet. They didn't actually make out let alone cop a feel. The kiss she got was sleepy and innocent and she was almost positive that Quinn didn't even know what she was doing. But she felt a sense of something akin to accomplishment. As far as she could tell, Quinn was, well on her way if not already, her friend.

As she was stretching again, Quinn stepped into the room in a powder blue towel. Quinn offered an awkward smile when she saw Rachel, "I thought you'd still be asleep."

"Um," Rachel sat up, "I have a very precise internal clock and I knew I needed to wake up for rehearsal today."

"Oh?" Quinn stepped into her closet, "What time is your rehearsal?"

"I have to be there at ten," Rachel was having a hard time getting out of the bed, like some sort of magnet was keeping her in the sheets. Of course the bed was ridiculously comfortable.

Quinn pulled a shirt on and some cotton running shorts. When she stepped out, she looked at the bed, seeing Rachel still laying there. The brunette's hair was sweeping across her face and she looked slightly distracted, but content nonetheless. She could feel a tug in the bottom of her stomach leading her to the bed. When she got there she laid down on her stomach and turned her head toward Rachel. She saw the brown eyes looking back at her, questioning and studying.

Quinn felt butterflies start to sprout in her stomach. They were laying just like this less than eight hours ago and she kissed Rachel. She fought to look away, but couldn't manage to break the spell. She wanted to be able to say something or at least blink.

Rachel was searching Quinn's face for any signs that she remembered last night. There was something baiting in her eyes and something that was trying desperately to hide. She couldn't tell if Quinn remembered, but she definitely did and it was making her anxious. "I-I should probably get going." She tried to will herself into moving, but she couldn't.

The blonde nodded into her pillow. Rachel's eyes flickered away from her and she managed to bury her face in the pillow while Rachel was looking away.

Rachel gulped and took that as a sign that Quinn may remember what happened and regretted it. She slowly got out of the bed and gathered her things while Quinn watched from the bed.

"Um, do you wanna hang out later?" Quinn asked quickly before she could back out.

The brunette paused as she picked up her bag. She let out a smile and nodded, "Sure. Text me later and I'll let you know when I get out of rehearsal."

"Awesome," Quinn smiled shyly.

Rachel nodded and left her with a lingering look. Finally she walked out of Quinn's room and down to her car with a brief goodbye to Quinn's mom.

Rachel got home and quickly showered and changed before running out the door to get to her first rehearsal. On the way she called Finn to update him on her progress.

"Hey Rach. Where were you last night? I went to your house and your dad said you were spending the night with Quinn," he explained.

"I _was_ spending the night with Quinn."

"No way."

"Yes way," Rachel said back, offended, "I went swimming with her and we sat in the hot tub. Then I had dinner with her and her mom and we went to her room and hung out. It was late so I spent the night."

Finn paused, "She used to talk about you all the time about how annoying you were and how you shouldn't be allowed to dress yourself. She doesn't like you."

Rachel rolled her eyes, "Well she does now."

"Did you sleep in the same bed?"

"Of course."

Finn added to himself more to Rachel, "She lived with me and we never slept in the same bed."

"It's because you couldn't remember her favorite flower."

"I already said sorry. Besides who remembers that kind of thing? I bet you don't even remember _my_ favorite flower…"

"Sunflowers."

"Oh."

"I gotta go to rehearsal."

"Okay. Maybe we can go eat afterward."

"Maybe," Rachel took a deep breath, "I'm going to hang out with Quinn for a while after I get out of rehearsal."

"Alright, cool," Finn sounded a little dejected, but added, "See you."

Quinn left the gym after about an hour or so. She didn't really feel like working out. Or being home. Or driving. She didn't feel like doing lot of things, because she felt a lot a lot of new things. She chose to ignore them and walk past the parking lot of the gym. Her walk brought her to this historic district of Lima. She never really came down here and she wasn't sure why. The old buildings were really beautiful having been restored.

As she walked, she heard music coming from somewhere. The faint smell of paint also caught her attention. Then she heard the singing. The all too familiar singing. She looked around and saw the open door of the oldest theatre in Lima. There was no one guarding the entrance so she ducked inside.

She opened the door to the main part of the theatre. The paint smell was getting stronger as was the singing. Finally she got to where she could see the stage.

Rachel is on stage singing. It's not a song Quinn immediately recognized, but she sat down in the back to listen to the rest of it. She had always loved to listen to Rachel's voice even though she'd never admit it out loud.

_Deep in my heart I'm concealing_  
_Things that I'm longing to say_  
_Scared to confess what I'm feeling_  
_Frightened you'll slip away_

_You must love me_  
_You must love me_

Rachel scanned the imaginary audience before her and jumped when she saw someone who was real watching her. The music went on without her as she stood in the middle of the stage, frozen. When she regained movement, she bowed her head and looked at Quinn from behind the curtain of her hair, "I'm sorry. I-I didn't know anyone else was there."

Quinn smiled nervously, "Was just walking by and heard you singing. Do you a smoothie or something or do I need to leave you alone to keep rehearsing?"

Rachel looked around and saw that everyone really was gone, including the set builders that were behind her a few minutes ago putting the finishing touches on the scenery that was still glistening with wet paint. She slowly nodded, "That'd be great."

They walked into the smoothie place a few doors down. They ordered from a guy who called Quinn Ms. Fabray and only charged them for one smoothie. When they sat at a table for two in the back Rachel looked curiously at Quinn, "What was that?"

"Cheerio discount," Quinn grinned.

"Seriously?"

The blonde nodded, "We get them almost everywhere. Being a Cheerio definitely has its perks."

"Wow," Rachel looked down at her smoothie and then back up at Quinn, "Sounds nice."

"It is," Quinn replied, "Although not as nice as the crowd parting when you walk down the hall and having your choice of anyone in the school."

"I bet," Rachel added, a little distracted.

Before Quinn could ask what was wrong, the bell on the door rang. She turned to look at who came in and was surprised to see Brittany and Santana. Their pinkies weren't linked this time, but their whole hands were intertwined.

"So are they like, officially dating now?" Rachel asked Quinn in a hushed voice.

Quinn shook her head, "No way. Santana is too scared of what everyone else will think." Her eyes shifted Santana and Brittany.

"Do you want to leave?" Rachel asked.

The blonde saw Santana spot her and nodded, "Yeah, what do you want to do?" She stood as she asked.

"Movies?" Rachel offered.

"Perfect," Quinn led the way out. The movies theatre was dark with the illusion of privacy without the pressure of being completely alone. She had to get this bet over with so she could go back to pretending to hate Rachel because the more time she spent with the brunette the harder it was going to be to put things back where they were before.


	5. Chapter 5

Rachel was a little alarmed to find that they were alone in the movie theatre. Either this movie was horrible and she hadn't heard about it, which was unlikely (she DVRed E! News, TMZ, and The Soup religiously so that she could learn from other celebrities' mistakes) or fate was tempting her. Being around Quinn was giving her some rather peculiar feelings and tinglings that she definitely wasn't familiar with.

They grabbed some drinks and some popcorn (no butter because Quinn was still worried about the few extra pounds that may or may not be there). They took their seats in the middle on Rachel's recommendation of the perfect angle to watch the movie at.

As they were waiting for the previews to start, Quinn put her feet up on the seat in front of her. She looked over at Rachel who was staring really hard at her drink. The blonde looked back at the screen hoping that something relatively innocent would pop into her head to talk about.

Rachel read the movie trivia on the screen and tilted her head to the side. These were way too easy.

"So," Quinn tapped the side of the popcorn bucket, "When does your play start?"

"In about a week," Rachel turned her head to look at Quinn, "Assuming that no one quits or anything. It'll run until the night before school starts."

"People quit?" the blonde quirked an eyebrow.

Rachel nodded, "Some people find me…difficult to work with."

"No kidding," automatically came out of Quinn's mouth. She could see the sting that it left on Rachel's face and added, "I mean you're just so talented that sometimes people feel so inadequate that they are rude to you." That used to be why she was rude to Rachel anyway.

Rachel was a little confused by the statement. No matter how nice Quinn was being she still expected the barbs that came with conversing with the Cheerio. Rachel nodded in response, "I like to think that's why." She turned back to the screen and answered the trivia question in her head, "I know I'm hard to work with sometimes but I know my potential. I know I'm going somewhere and I have the ambition to do so." She turned back to Quinn, "I'm sure you can relate. We're both very ambitious young women. We know what we want and we know what it's going to take to get it."

Quinn nodded. Rachel had a point there. Their singular common denominator was the thing caused the most friction between them. Quinn needed to be the best, prettiest, most popular girl in school and Rachel needed to be the most talented, future celebrity the world had ever seen. Because of this Quinn was viciously mean to Rachel and Rachel was arrogant and conceited. Little did they know that their insecurities were also something they also had in common.

Rachel was about to add something that would hopefully lead to a kiss, but the lights dimmed and the previews started. It was probably better that way. If they kissed before the movie, it may be extremely awkward for the rest of the movie and the car ride back to the theatre where Rachel had left her car.

As the movie played, Quinn would occasionally glance at Rachel and occasionally she could catch Rachel glancing back. Normally it would annoy her, but Quinn wondered what Rachel was thinking. Was there something on her face? Did Rachel wonder what she thought of the movie? Maybe she looked like a zombie in the dark with only the light of the screen casting long shadows across her face. Quinn shook her head, trying to shake her own thoughts. She scooted down in her chair and looked back at the screen determined not to look at Rachel again.

"I love that dress," Rachel muttered during the inevitable airport scene of the cliché romantic comedy.

Quinn examined the dress, "The shoes make the dress."

Rachel nodded in agreement, "So does that necklace."

"I didn't notice the necklace," Quinn tilted her head and waited for the female star to appear on the screen again, "Oh yeah, you're right."

Rachel blinked as the scene passed. She and Quinn just had like a conversation that wasn't awkward at all. It actually sounded like they were friends. She smiled to herself.

When the movie was over, Quinn looked down at the empty popcorn bag in her lap. She was still starving and had finished off most of the popcorn by herself. Rachel would accept a few pieces every time Quinn offered them to her, but would never get them on her own.

As they both squinted into the early afternoon sunlight, Quinn asked, "Do you have any other plans today?"

"I have to go back to the theatre to pick up some things and suggest a few things, but after that no," Rachel shrugged, hoping that that question meant that Quinn was about to ask her to hang out some more.

Quinn tried not to sound too nervous. She shouldn't be nervous. She'd been hanging out with Rachel for a little more than twenty-four hours and things were going along swimmingly. "Do you want to come over after you're done and hang out by the pool and stuff?"

"Sure," Rachel smiled.

Quinn dropped Rachel off at the theater and after she had taken care of her business, which took a lot longer than expected, Rachel went straight to Quinn's house, already having her swimsuit in her car.

When she got there, Quinn's mom answered the door with a smile, "Hey Rachel. Quinn's already in the pool. She told me to send you out when you're ready. Have you eaten honey?"

Rachel shook her head with a smile

"Well I haven't be able to drag Quinn away from the pool since she got home," Judy explained ushering Rachel in, "So I'll make you girls something to eat and you can come in when you're ready?"

Rachel thanked Judy before going to Quinn's room to change. Once she was done, she went downstairs and stepped outside. She found Quinn laying on her back in one of the lawn chairs soaking up the sun. Her eyes were closed behind oversized sunglasses and her hair was put up in a loose bun, a few wisps of blonde locks sweeping across her face in the gently breeze. One knee was slightly bent while the other was completely straight.

Rachel felt her whole body get hot and it had nothing to do with the sun. Quinn's fingertips grazed her stomach as she shifted in her chair and the brunette could not take her eyes off of them. Finally she fought her way out of the fog and decided that she need to cool off immediately.

Quinn looked up when she heard a slash in the pool. When she saw Rachel under the water she smiled and stood up, walking to the edge. When Rachel surfaced, Quinn slid her sunglasses up on top of her head and put her hands on her hips. "I thought you weren't coming."

"Sorry," Rachel grinned, "Getting everything done that I needed done too a lot longer than I thought."

"It's okay," Quinn sat on the edge of the pool and put her feet in, "I was just getting a tan."

Rachel splashed Quinn who started laughing and dove into the pool after her.

They played like that until they were too tired to swim anymore. They went inside and half-heartedly ate before going to Quinn's room.

"If we do that everyday, I'll be back in perfect shape in no time," Quinn yawned, too tired to even change out of her swimsuit.

Rachel glanced at the clock. It was only eight thirty, but swimming always took it out of her. She nodded, "Me too." She laid down next to Quinn and mentioned, "Do you think that Bewitched will be on again tonight?"

"Probably," Quinn shrugged, fighting a losing battle to keep her eyes open. She grabbed her phone and punched a few buttons before putting it down. Then she looked at Rachel who was looking at her.

The blonde let her eyes slide closed, content in the knowledge that Rachel was probably a few seconds behind her. She felt something light and soft brush against her forehead and heard Rachel whisper, "Goodnight Quinn."

When she felt Rachel laid back down, she knew what Rachel had just done. She let out a small content smile knowing that someone, especially Rachel, cared enough to kiss her goodnight. Quinn was about to tell Puck to shove his bet because Rachel was turning out to be one of the best friends Quinn could ever ask for.

Quinn woke up to pitch darkness. The TV was off as were all the lights. She rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. As her eyes slid shut again, she heard a noise. She propped herself up on her elbows and listened for it again. When it sounded again, she found it had come from the girl in the bed next to her. Rachel was whimpering in her sleep.

Quinn turned on the lamp next to her bed and looked over at Rachel. She could see the brunette's face contorted with some sort of fear or pain. Quinn reached over and shook gently Rachel to wake her up.

Rachel's eyelids flew up revealing eyes that were glassy with unshed tears. Quinn felt like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. The look of pain on Rachel's face shot straight into her heart and squeezed it tight. They sat like that for a few minutes, just looking at each other before Rachel buried her head in her pillow, suddenly ashamed at her vulnerability.

Quinn frowned. She was never good with emotions. Her repressive parents made sure of that, but she'd comforted Brittany enough times (usually after a Disney movie) to not act like an awkward robot. She let her fingers rest on Rachel's back for a beat, waiting to see if she got a reaction. When she got none, she began rubbing up and down over the fabric of Rachel's shirt. She moved in the bed next to Rachel so that there were mere centimeters between them. She whispered, "What's wrong Rach?"

Rachel audibly sniffled and shook her head into the pillow. Her voice would have failed her had she tried to talk. She just needed a few moments to compose herself. It would be a lie if she said Quinn's concern wasn't touching or that the hand on her back wasn't comforting.

Finally Rachel pulled her face away from the pillow, the area around her eyes slightly glistening in the lamplight. Quinn was struck by the feeling that she'd never seen Rachel that vulnerable.

Rachel for her part was also struck by a feeling. The look of concern on Quinn's face as the blonde softly brushed her hair away from her face caused Rachel's mouth to go dry.

Somehow Quinn found herself inching forward, her lips moving to find Rachel's. She was immensely surprised when Rachel moved toward her. Then their lips touched they both paused before they melted into each other.

As their lips slid together Quinn pushed up on her elbow and slid one leg over Rachel's leg. Her hand slid across Rachel's stomach, feeling the taunt skin under her fingertips. When Rachel moaned into her mouth, Quinn smiled into the diva's lips and moved her lips across Rachel's jaw and down her neck.

Rachel inched her hands up Quinn's torso, leaving goose bumps in her wake. She turned her head to the side to allow Quinn full access to whatever part of her neck that she wanted because it seemed that whatever Quinn would do electrified her.

Quinn gasped as Rachel's thumb grazed the underside of her bikini top. Few boys had ever gotten to feel her up and none of them ever made her heart hammer like it was now. Rachel barely even touched her.

Rachel's breathing became labored. She'd never really been this turned on before. She didn't see the big deal about sex until that moment. She felt the need and was sure she'd go through with it if Quinn propositioned her.

However before Quinn could even untie her bikini top, a shrill ring cut through the room. It made Rachel jump, but Quinn giggled against her neck and moved away much to Rachel's distaste. Quinn picked up her phone and turned off the ringing.

She then picked up the remote on the nightstand. She laid down next to Rachel, close enough to touch her, and flipped on the TV.

Rachel suddenly knew how Finn felt every time she turned him down or stopped him mid-make-out. She let out an exasperated huff.

The blonde found the channel she wanted and rolled on her side, wrapping her arms around Rachel. The brunette melted at the touch and rested her head against Quinn's as the opening credits of Bewitched came on.

Quinn nuzzled into Rachel's neck and closed her eyes. She was starting to think that all the tension between them all these years had been sexual. Something about touching Rachel unleashing something inside of her that she never knew was there and it had only been two days. She wondered what would happen had she not stopped them from going all the way.

Rachel was a little shaken as she watched the show. A simple kiss turned into a heated make-out session and she would have surrendered her v-card if Quinn had wanted. That was not something she expected from someone she'd only been friends with for a little less than forty-eight hours. Tomorrow morning she was going to call Puck and call the bet off. It seemed wrong to take the money for initiating something so mind-blowing.

When the show was over, Rachel could feel Quinn's deep, even breathing on her neck and knew that the other girl was asleep. She gave into impulse once again and kissed Quinn's forehead, whispering, "Goodnight Quinn."


	6. Chapter 6

As the summer days crept on, Rachel and Quinn hung out as much as possible and spent the night at each other's houses every night their parents allowed it, which was ninety-nine percent of the time.

They didn't talk about the physical aspect of their relationship. Occasionally they would steal innocent kisses and they would snuggle into each other at movies. At night their kisses would become frenzied and their hands would become more adventurous. They woke up every morning at two to watch Bewitched and then went back to sleep, wrapped up in each other.

Rachel had gone to Puck's house on the way from rehearsal to Quinn's house and told him that the bet was off.

He smirked, "I knew you couldn't do it."

"I did it," Rachel defiantly replied, "I just don't want money for it. Quinn's my friend now."

"Bullshit," Puck shook his head, "You couldn't do it."

Rachel frowned, "How can I prove that I did it?"

"Without pictures?" Puck rubbed his mowhawk, "Um…" He snapped his fingers, "She has a birthmark-"

Rachel finished for him, "Right under her jaw." She even pointed to the place halfway between her ear and chin on the underside of her jaw.

Puck crossed his arms, "You could have seen that anytime."

"She's ticklish, but only in one specific spot on her side," Rachel added, "Her lips taste like cherries and she moans when I lick her neck."

Puck's eyes got huge. The one time he got to hook up with Quinn was extremely memorable so he remembered that she tasted like cherries and that deep sexy moan she had when he licked her neck, "Holy fuck. You did it."

"Yeah I did," Rachel nodded. Then she walked off with a self-satisfied grin on her face. She had to go to Finn's house. He was going to pay up because he was an ass about it to begin with and he still couldn't remember her favorite flower.

Quinn collected her money from Puck a few days earlier and had put the money to good use. She carefully wrapped the present that she had gotten Rachel as an opening night present. Quinn wasn't sure there was such thing, but she didn't mind making it up. Rachel was worth it.

She checked her phone. If she was going to make it to Rachel's before she took off for the show, she needed to get going.

Are you sure you're not going to make it to my show? You need the culture. Quinn's coming. Rachel texted to Puck. She'd personally tailored a message to every person in the glee club and she'd gotten a bunch of 'no way's and 'sorry I'm on vacation's. She knew Puck was in town because she'd seen him at the gym the day before.

She had already started her pre-show ritual. She was sitting on the floor of her bedroom with her legs stretched out in front of her, stretching. Her phone vibrated next to her and she flipped it open. Puck's reply was, Don't be an ass. I made you two friends. So what if I lost fifty bucks. My spank bank is full.

Rachel frowned and replied, What are you talking about? I didn't take the money.

The reply was almost immediate. Q did.

Rachel read the message again. Then she read it again. It didn't make sense. Why would Quinn… It hit Rachel like a bus. She dropped her phone on the ground.

She didn't know how long she was staring at the ground, but the next thing she was aware of was a light knock on her door and then it opening. Quinn walked in with a smile on her face and the present in her hand. She was nervous about the present, but really excited to give it to Rachel, "I got you a pres-" When she saw Rachel the smile faded from her face.

Rachel looked up at her with a glare on her face. She rose to her feet and Quinn's eyes got wide. She hadn't seen that look directed at her in over a year. "What?"

"You made a bet with Puck," Rachel stated, then knelt down and picked up the phone on the ground.

The blonde looked like a deer in the headlights. She swallowed and licked her lips. Her weight shifted from her right foot to her left, "How did you find out?"

Rachel waved her phone in the air, "Puck told me you took the money."

"But I-" Quinn started to try to explain, but Rachel shook her head.

Words started pouring out of Rachel's mouth faster than she could think about what she was saying, "I thought we were friends….or something….else. In the end I didn't even take the money because my friendship with you was better than the money-" After that came out, she stopped herself from talking, her jaw clenched.

Quinn's hazel eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them back. Her voice came out in a harsh whisper, "You bet him too."

Rachel immediately felt bad for what she said. If she could take it back she would have. "Quinn, I-"

The blonde angrily tossed the gift onto the bed. "There's the money. Happy opening night." Quinn turned on her heel and quickly walked out of the room.

Rachel dropped her head in her hands. This was not the night for her only healthy relationship to crumble under her.

Quinn paced the length of her living room. She was wearing a wine red, strapless cocktail dress that she picked out just for tonight. The click of her heels on the floor was starting to drive her mom crazy.

"What is wrong Quinn?" her mom asked, looking at her from the kitchen door, "Are you sick?"

"Yes-no," Quinn shook her head and her soft curls made waves through the golden locks, "I just…I'm…Can we just go now?"

Judy nodded, "Sure." She rubbed Quinn's shoulder, "Why don't we stop by the flower shop and get Rachel some flowers? That's customary for opening night isn't it?"

"Yeah," Quinn absently nodded and picked up her coat.

After a quick stop, Quinn took her seat in the theatre. She knew Rachel couldn't see into the crowd. She'd been waiting for a week to see Rachel in this play. She even rented the horrible Madonna version so she'd understand what was going on. The movie didn't help but that didn't matter.

That night it was going to be easy for Eva to cry tonight. Rachel felt absolutely horrible and almost thought of not performing. However the directors of the Lima Community Theatre no longer cast an understudy for her because she never missed a performance. The show needed to go on. Depression or not.

She looked at her hair in the mirror of her dressing room. It was a converted broom closet, but it was private and had a mirror and that was all she demanded after being cast for the third time in the female lead. She needed to get into character, but she was having the hardest time making the transition she always did.

Quinn was fidgeting in her seat as the lights went down. She glanced over at her mom who was looking at her. She shook her head, trying to shake her mother's concern. She didn't need it right then. She needed the damn show to start.

Finally when Rachel stepped out onto the stage during her first scene, Quinn's mouth went dry. Rachel looked out over the audience as Eva stared into the distance. Quinn could swear that Rachel could see her and it made her heart hammer. When Rachel looked away her heart continued to beat so fast she was sure she was having a heart attack or a stroke or something. But the second Rachel started to sing, Quinn's heart slowed to a normal rate a smile fought it's way onto her face.

The whole play was a roller coaster for Quinn. It was way better than the movie and when Rachel cried on stage, Quinn started to cry. The pain in her face was genuine and it hurt Quinn to see her like that.

At the end of act one, Quinn got up to use to bathroom. She wanted to make sure that her make-up wasn't running. Luckily she had found an isolated bathroom one of the few times she picked Rachel up from rehearsal so there was no one else in there.

As she was finishing her mascara fix the door opened. She didn't move from the mirror. At least not until she heard the footsteps stop. She slowly turned to the door and saw Rachel standing there in a white robe.

They stood awkwardly for a moment before Rachel spoke, her eyes never touching Quinn. "There's usually no one in here. There's no running water in my dressing room."

"I was just," Quinn trailed off and pointed to the mirror. Then she bit her lip, "You're really amazing out there."

Rachel let out a tentative smile and finally looked at Quinn's eyes, "Thanks. I-uh-got the flowers you sent backstage. They're my favorite."

"I know," The blonde nodded. She took a deep breath, "Well, I'm going to go sit back down. You're um….doing really good." With that Quinn walked out the door and quickly back to her seat.

Rachel just stood in the bathroom stunned. She leaned on the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. Her organs were rioting and she felt sick. She was mad at Quinn, but she was also ridiculously excited that Quinn came. Now things were just awkward between them, but neither one could be mean to the other. It was just really messed up.

The lights flickered and she knew she needed to get back to her dressing room. The problem would have to wait. The show must go on.


	7. Chapter 7

When the show was over, Quinn took a moment to blink back to reality. Rachel was amazing at what she did and had pulled the entire audience into the story. It took a few seconds, but soon the whole crowd was on their feet applauding.

The entire cast sans Rachel walked out onto the stage for a bow. Quinn tried to see in the dark of the stage wings to see if Rachel was there. It was so unlike her to not accept her applause. When she didn't see Rachel, she leaned over to her mom and said she was going to go see if she could find Rachel and catch a ride home with her. Her mom just smiled and nodded, "Tell her she did amazing."

Quinn nodded and walked out of the theatre before everyone else started to filter out. She pushed open the door to the outside and walked out into the dark night. It had gotten a little chilly since they went into the theatre, but she didn't really notice. She just needed to think.

It took about twenty minutes, but she managed to walk all the way to Puck's house. When Puck's mom answered the door she sighed and muttered, "Oh god."

Quinn replied with a similar sneer. They had had many disagreements over the course of her pregnancy and now had a mutual distaste for each other.

Puck appeared behind him mom. His mom walked off into the house that Quinn had no interest in going into.

"What?" he asked, seeing how pissed she looked. He knew she wouldn't want to come inside so he stepped onto the porch and closed the door. They both sat down next to each other on the steps to the front porch. Quinn's feet were killing her.

"You look hot," Puck smirked at Quinn.

She rolled her eyes. If she was in a better mood she would have hit him. "Why did you tell her?" Quinn asked looking out at the dark street.

"Tell who what?"

Quinn looked at him, "Tell Rachel about the bet."

He shrugged, nonchalantly, "I didn't mean to. I didn't think it was such a big deal."

"It was," Quinn sighed.

"What happened?" he asked, "Are you two like friends now?"

The blonde nodded then stopped herself, "Well we were." She sighed heavily and stood up, "I don't even know why I came here. I kinda wanted to yell at you, but…"

"I'm sorry," Puck uttered two words that were harder to get out of him than Santana.

Quinn shook her head, "I wish it wasn't too late for that." She started walking down the sidewalk toward the street.

"Hey Q?" he called, "Do you need a ride?"

She stopped and slowly tuned back to him. Her feet overcame her pride and she nodded.

Puck's truck always smelled like chlorine. It used to make Quinn nauseous when she was pregnant and she started hiding air fresheners all over his truck so that maybe they'd overcome the smell, but it never worked.

"You know it would have been a lot worse if you were the only one that made the bet," Puck offered, "Maybe you can still be friends."

"I don't think we can be friends like before," Quinn leaned against the window.

"What kind of friends was that?" he asked suspiciously.

The Cheerio sighed, watching the streetlamps pass, "I don't know…It's too late to figure it out now."

Rachel walked into her room with her flowers and closed the door. Usually she would have joined the rest of the cast for the customary after show dinner, but she definitely wasn't feeling it tonight. She told everyone she was really tired and hugged everyone before leaving.

Now she was alone in her bedroom with her flowers. She placed them on the windowsill, hoping that they'd stay alive for as long as possible. She loved them and they were a leftover shard in her relationship with Quinn. The longer they were there, the longer she could hold onto the small hope she still had.

Rachel changed into her pajamas and sat on her bed. She looked over at the trash bin that contained several crumpled up drafts of her homework from last week and the present that Quinn had brought over. In her anger Rachel threw it in the bin, but now she slowly walked over to it and carefully fished it out.

She sat down on her bed and placed it in her lap. She peeled back the wrapping paper and a pain shot through her chest. Tears sprang to her eyes and she let them slide down her cheeks, not bothering to try to stop the outward projection of the emotions consuming her. In her hand was the complete series of Bewitched on DVD.

Puck got out of his truck and walked Quinn to her door because there was a sketchy looking guy jogging past her house. He had his hands in his pockets and wasn't sure what to say. He stopped before the steps up to her front door as she ascended them.

"Look, I'm sure whatever if going on with you and Rachel will work out," he offered hopefully.

Quinn looked back with a smile that looked like she wanted to, but didn't quiet believe him. "Thanks Puck." She nodded as she turned around and walked into her house.

When she stepped in the door she found her mom sitting on the couch. Her mom smiled when she walked in. "Hey Quinny."

"Hi mom," Quinn took off her heels and started walking up the stairs.

"Oh Quinn, I have a surprise for you," her mom stood up. She picked up a brochure off of the coffee table. She walked over to Quinn and handed it over.

"Vista Rivers Spa?" Quinn looked the brochure over.

"Tomorrow you and me and going to the Vista Rivers Spa in rural Pennsylvania," her mom smiled, "You've been really uptight lately, so I booked us a week long stay so you'll be relaxed before school starts, but you'll be back in time for Cheerio practice."

Quinn looked at the pictures. The place did look peaceful. Maybe she did need some time away. Being in Lima was confusing as hell now. She put on a smile and nodded. "Awesome. I'll go get packed."

Once upstairs Quinn logged onto her Facebook page. She had friended Rachel last semester after the hundredth time Rachel tried to add her. Now she was glad she did. She wanted to let Rachel know she was going out of town without directly telling her. She updated her status, "Going to spa in PA for a week. Be jealous. When I come back I will look more fabulous than usual."

She logged off and swiveled around in her computer chair to look at her bed. She'd spend most night in the past week with Rachel in that bed. Their innocent kisses and touches were floating in the room like ghosts. She stood up and unzipped her dress. She needed to change and get packed. She need time to think.

Rachel saw Quinn's status update. Quinn was going away for a week and would be back on the last day of her play. She closed her computer and bit her lip. She needed to get over Quinn. It's not like they could have worked out anyway. Especially at school. Friends or beyond.

Rachel threw herself into the play. Her life revolved around it much to the chagrin of her fellow actors and the directors. She kept making suggestions for the set and other actors. Finn came to a couple of her shows but afterwards she could tell that he'd been sleeping. His hair was always messed up and one time he had some dried drool on his chin.

When she got home she'd lay in her bed and try desperately not to think about Quinn. The DVDs that Quinn bought her were sitting on top of the TV unwatched and unopened. She always associated that show with Quinn now and it was painful to watch.

"C'mon Rach," Finn asked her as they at dinner at Breadstix the night before her last show (and, what Rachel had been focus on, the night before Quinn got back from her spa week). "Tell me what's wrong. You've been all mopey lately and I'm kinda getting worried."

Rachel looked down at her food that she had barely touched, "I'm sorry. I just…Did you know that Puck also bet Quinn to kiss me?"

Finn frowned and shook his head, "But that totally sounds like him."

Rachel sighed, "We became friends based on a lie. Two lies. Two really huge lies. And now…I don't know."

"Quinn was who you were blowing me off for all that week," Finn put two and two together and let out a relieved sigh, "I thought it was Puck."

Rachel let out a weak smile. It was probably safer for Finn had it actually been Puck. "Noah and I are just friends. Quinn and I used to be friends….I guess."

"Why aren't you still friends?" he asked, "I mean that would be cool right?"

Her eyes flickered to him before coming back to her food, "Well yeah, but there's no way it'll happen. You've seen us. We fight all the time." Except when they're alone, but Rachel didn't mention that. The also did things alone that she didn't want Finn to find out about. Especially when, she had convinced herself, that there was absolutely no future for anything between them. Things had progressed too far for a conventional friendship and not for enough for anything else.

"Oh okay," Finn gave up. He didn't know what else to say. He didn't know why she was so broken up about it, but he didn't understand Rachel. "Do you want to leave?"

"No," Rachel shook her head, "We can stay. It's fine."

Quinn was tapping her fingers on the book she was supposed to be reading. Three massages and countless mineral baths over the coarse of the past six days had done nothing to loosen the tension in her body. In fact, being here seemed to make it worse.

The woman giving her the pedicure looked curiously up at her. Quinn figured she must have said something. "What?"

"What color do you want?" the woman asked again offering up two colors.

Quinn sighed. Of course one of them was Rachel's favorite color. Everything reminded her of Rachel. She couldn't escape it or get away from it. She pointed to the light purple polish and leaned back in her massage chair. She needed to talk to Rachel when she got back. As soon as she got back.

And that exactly what she set out to do the second she got home around two thirty in the afternoon the next day. She looked at Rachel's Facebook and saw that she had a matinee performance at the theatre at three. If she hurried she could catch Rachel before she went out on stage.

"Whoa where are you going so fast?" her mom asked as she grabbed her keys and ran out the door.

"I'm going to go watch Rachel's show again." She struggled for a plausible reason to go see it again, "She's performing a new number at the end. Bye mom." With that she ran out the door.

Rachel looked at herself in the mirror of her dressing room. Her looked horrible. She hadn't slept well in a long time. She kept having nightmare and then woke up in the middle of the night thinking that Quinn was in bed next to her, which would always calm her down. That was until she realized Quinn wasn't actually there.

She heard footsteps on the concrete floor coming toward her dressing room. She figured it was the stage manager coming to tell her it was time to go on. She rested her forehead on her vanity table. She was glad this show was over. School started in a few days and she needed to close the chapter of this summer as soon as possible.

There was a soft knock on her doorframe. Rachel looked up at saw Quinn standing there. Her hair was up in a ponytail too loose to be considered a Cheerio ponytail. She was in jean shorts a gray tank top dotted with different colored stars. However the irony of her shirt was lost on her. Her was fidgeting with her keys in her hand, "I um…I just got back into town and I wanted to talk to you."

"I don't think there's anything left to say," Rachel turned back to the mirror.

Quinn opened her mouth again, "But Rachel I-" She started but trailed off as Rachel shook her head.

"I- we need to face facts Quinn," Rachel ran a hand through her hair as she stared at herself in the mirror trying not to look at all affected by the situation, "We can't be anything, but teammates. You're popular or on your way back to being there….I need to make myself forget this because it'll just be easier that way. I understand that this was a summer fling. School starts next week and we need to get back to reality."

Quinn looked at Rachel with watery eyes that shimmered in Rachel's vanity lights, "Why can't it work?" Her voice came out weaker than she would have liked, but it did manage to get Rachel to look at her.

After Rachel surveyed Quinn and saw the unshed tears, her clenched her jaw trying to keep her own tears at bay. She looked back at herself in the mirror once more before standing from her chair, "It just can't." She turned to meet Quinn's eyes, feeling her heart collapsing in on itself as a few tears trickled down the blonde's face. "We're too differed. You're popular. I'm not. We're…not in a movie. We can't blur the social lines just because we-I feel something. Goodbye Quinn." Rachel stepped up to Quinn and place a lingering kiss on her tear coated cheek before walking out of the dressing room.


	8. Chapter 8

Even a standing ovation couldn't elevate Rachel's mood today. She stood on the stage, a fake smile on her face accepting the applause.

When she got back to her dressing room she sort of hoped that Quinn was still there. While she was waiting in the wings of the stage for her scenes she realized that ache in her stomach wasn't because of stage fright (who was she kidding, Rachel Berry didn't get stage fright) or because she forgot to eat lunch. She regretted telling Quinn that it wouldn't work. Logically it was the right thing to do. Logically it was better to end it now than for it to blow up in the end. But it just didn't sit well with her.

She figured that she didn't want Quinn to give up so easily. She wanted someone to fight for her. She'd always wanted that. It meant that someone really wanted her. She really wanted Quinn to want her.

Rachel took off her stage makeup and got dressed in her regular clothes. She grabbed her purse and walked down the street to the smoothie place that Quinn had taken her to a couple times before. She got a smoothie and sat outside at the small table for two. She sent out a mass text to all the glee clubbers letting them know that her last show started in two hours and it would mean a lot if they would all show up. She didn't really expect any of them to show up, but she kinda hoped.

When she was done with her smoothie, she had a chat with the old woman who was manning the box office and told her to put some tickets aside for them. She slowly moped back into the theatre and walked down the isle. She surveyed the stage and the audience. This place usually brought her so much solace, but now it just wasn't working anymore. She walked to the stage and hopped up on it.

"Hey Rachel," she heard a voice come from the front doors.

She turned around and saw Puck standing in the middle of the isle with his hands in his pockets.

Rachel just looked at him until he started talking, "Look I'm sorry about you and Q. I still think it was a good idea, but I didn't think it was going to upset you two so much."

Rachel looked up from her feet that were swinging a few feet above the ground, "Quinn's upset?"

He nodded, "She yelled at me last week for telling you...well she wanted to. But I don't see why you still can't be friends."

Rachel sighed, "She lied to me...and I lied to her."

"You didn't really lie," Puck added as he walked up to the stage and sat down next to her.

"It doesn't matter anyway. It'll never work. We're just too different." Her eyes found their way to the ground again.

"Well are we friends? Cause I think we're about as different as it gets. Except for the Jew thing." He playfully bumped shoulders with her.

Rachel let out a weak smile, "It's different with girls."

"You have glee in common and you have the same taste in guys except for that Jesse kid. Quinn was always mumbling about how much she hated him. Especially after that egg thing. She was the one that suggested slashing their tires, "He paused, "Well just Jesse's. We got carried away."

Rachel leaned into Puck and he instinctively put an arm around her. She just shook her head against his shoulder.

"You know if you two like united or whatever the glee club would be kind like The Avengers. United for the greater good and all that shit," Rachel chuckled, "I'm just saying, you were besties for a week. You can do it again."

"It's more complicated than that Noah."

He looked down at her, "How? It's not like you were dating or anything. You just kissed right? Girls take kissing way too seriously."

Rachel sighed heavily, "It wasn't just kissing."

Puck paused and thought over what she said before asking, "What? No way. You two had sex?"

"No, but close," she paused, "I would have if she wanted to."

"You would have surrendered your v-card to someone who was a bitch to you since middle school and I couldn't get a little under the bra action?" he asked.

Rachel chuckled, "Quinn's different when we were alone. She was sweet and thoughtful. She bought me the entire series of my favorite show on DVD and she bought me my favorite flowers for the opening night of my show. And at night...we'd just kiss and her hands would just-"

"Alright, I'm just going to stop you there," Puck interrupted her. "Any more of that mental image would make it a little awkward in here."

Rachel smiled slightly and closed her eyes, "No offense, but I've never really like that before. It was like my whole body was tingling."

"Babe you're making my body tingle," he smirked and gave her a little squeeze. He waited for her finish giggling before adding, "If it was that awesome then why are you just going to let it go."

"Because she's Quinn Fabray. She doesn't like me like that. I can't make her feel that."

"How do you know?"

"Because she's Quinn Fabray Puck! She's so...above me."

Puck smirked, his mind jumping straight into the gutter. Rachel figured that would happen the second that came out of her mouth. She smacked him in the chest and he laughed, "You said it. Not me."

Rachel slid off of the stage and stood in front of him, "What are you doing here anyway?"

He jerked his head toward the back of the stage, "I came to see your show."

"Really?" she was a little surprised that he'd show any interest in the fine arts.

"Yeah," he hopped off of the stage, "I already worked out today and threw tomatoes at passing cars so I thought I might as well."

Rachel stepped up to Puck and hugged him. "Thanks Noah. It means a lot."

Puck hung out with Rachel in her dressing room while she got ready and only hit on her once, which was pretty good for him. When the play started, Puck took a seat in the front row where Kurt, Finn, Brittany, and (begrudgingly) Santana had shown up. Finn didn't look too happy when Puck walked out of the backstage door, but he didn't say anything. He just sulked in his seat.

Kurt elbowed Puck a couple times for texting during the play. Puck just rolled his eyes and pocketed his phone.

When the play was over the gleeks that came were on their feet, applauding. Santana hit Finn on the back of his head to wake him up before resuming her clapping.

As the lights came up and people started to filter out of the theatre. Santana grabbed Brittany's hand and tried to get out as fast as possible, but Puck called out to them, "Hey, we're gonna take Rachel out to dinner since this is her last show. Wanna go?"

Brittany agreed for both of them and Santana groaned.

Finn and Kurt both agreed to go, Finn because he wanted to see if there was something going on with Puck and Rachel and Kurt because he rode with Finn.

Puck and Finn went backstage to surprise Rachel. She beamed and hugged both of them. Puck first, Finn noted before telling them she would meet them outside.

When they all got to Breadstix, the hostess asked them how many would be in their party. He shook his head, "There's already someone here at our table."

The hostess smiled at them, specifically Puck and nodded, "I know who you're talking about. Follow me."

They all followed her and in the back room of the restaurant, Quinn sat at a large table staring at her phone.

"Hey hot stuff," Puck called walking through the doorway to the back room.

She smiled and looked up, "I was starting to think you stood me…up…" Quinn trailed off when she saw Rachel walk in.

Rachel froze as soon as her eyes landed on Quinn. Her eyes immediately shot to the floor and her stomach did a double gainer with a twist. Puck pulled out Brittany's chair next to Quinn and then Santana's chair. Normally he couldn't give two shits about chivalry, but he wanted to make sure everyone sat where he wanted them to.

After he sat Rachel between him and Finn and directly across from Quinn, he smirked. Goddamn he was a freakin' genius.


	9. Chapter 9

Quinn awkwardly stared at her plate while Brittany and Santana chattered away on one side of her and Kurt explained why Madonna was the perfect choice for the movie version of Evita. When she got a chance she'd shoot a glare at Puck who would just grin back.

At one point Kurt looked over at Brittany, "Can you swing dance?"

Brittany differed to Santana who nodded, "Is there a dance this girl can't do?"

"Tango?"

"Vertical and horizontal."

"Pasodoble?"

"What?" Brittany asked.

"It's like-"

"It goes-"

Quinn and Rachel started talking at the same time. They both looked at each other before looking away and becoming silent. Santana looked between the two, "Okay. What the fuck is going on here?" She used her fork to point between Quinn and Rachel, "We've all been pretending that Q is not acting hella weird. I've been ignoring it because I don't really care about feelings and all the bullshit but you're bringing the vibe down."

"Sorry," Quinn shook her head, "I'm just tired. it was a long drive home." She half-heartedly added, "Go ahead and explain manhands."

Rachel felt a stab in her chest. Quinn had called her that hundreds of times, but this time actually, physically hurt her. It also confirmed her fear that they would never, ever work. She called it off mere hours ago and Quinn was already calling her names again.

"Quinn," Finn sighed when he saw Rachel's shoulders slump, "I thought you two were like almost friends now. Why are you being mean again?"

"It's fine," Rachel shook her head and huffed. She didn't want this all to come out in public. She'd been omitting the Finn the parts where she and Quinn were in a bed and that one time on the couch in Quinn's living room.

"No it's not," Finn replied, picking the most inopportune time to start defending Rachel. He looked at Quinn, "I knew you were going to do this to her. Pretend to be her friend and then treat her like crap. Rachel was nice to you when the stupid Cheerios wouldn't even talk to you."

"Dude." Puck tried to intervene, but Finn continued.

"She's trying to be your friend again and you're being a bitch."

"Finn. Shut up," Puck raised his voice in order to get him to shut his trap.

Quinn rose from the table and threw her napkin onto her place, "Fine." She looked at Rachel, holding her eyes for the first time since they were in Rachel's dressing room. Then she grabbed her purse adding with a bitter edge to her voice, her eyes everywhere but Rachel "I'm sorry Rachel. I'm sorry that I'm a bitch. I'm sorry that I'm not good enough for you." Her last sentence faded out toward the end as she stalked off.

Brittany got up and followed her while surprisingly Santana started in her seat with a wicked smile on her face.

Kurt cocked his head to the side, "What just happened?"

"Nothing," Puck replied. He turned to Rachel, "You okay?"

She numbly nodded, "I'm fine."

He didn't buy it, but Puck got up and went to find Quinn.

"Q?" Brittany called quietly when she found the other Cheerio outside, walking toward her car.

Quinn sniffled and wiped her eyes. She forced a smile and turned around, "Hey B."

Brittany pulled Quinn out of the way of traffic and the leaned against Santana's car. "What's wrong?"

Quinn shook her head, "It's nothing."

Brittany bit her lip, "Why are you crying?"

"I'm just...he's right. I'm a bitch."

"Well yeah," Brittany shrugged, "But that's good right? Santana says we have to be."

Her blonde hair swayed as she shook her head, "Not to Rachel. She had been really nice. I'm just- I can't- She's right. It would never work."

A confused look veiled Brittany's face as Puck walked up to them.

"What would never work?" he asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Nothing," Quinn shook her head, trying to shake all the thoughts out, "Thanks for inviting me Puck, but I'm going to go."

Puck sighed, "Why?"

"I think you know why."

He looked off into the parking lot, surveying cars, "Well Finn's a dumbass. Why can't you do all that girly shit and talk about it."

"We already did. There's no way it would work," She dug her keys out of her purse, "I'm going to go see a movie." She turned to Brittany, "Wanna go?" Quinn hoped she'd say yes. She really didn't want to be alone, but she didn't want to be with anyone who really knew what was going on.

Brittany nodded, still worried about Quinn and wanting to keep an eye on her.

The blondes walked off to Quinn's car, disappearing from Puck's sight. He shook his head, "Girls..."

"Where's Brittany?" Santana asked Puck the second he got back.

"She went to the movies with Quinn," he slumped down in Quinn's vacant seat. He leaned back and crossed his arms.

A wave of jealousy washed over Santana. She turned to Puck, "I'll be over at your house later."

He was going to argue with her. He never had a bad time with her when they were alone. He looked across the table at Rachel who was watching the ice melt in her water. "Well, I fucked up. I'm never going to try to help anyone again."

Finn was about to ask who he was trying to help, but Kurt started talking first. He directed his gaze at Santana, "Do you always sleep with Puck when you're jealous of Brittany being with someone else?"

Santana shrugged, still sulking, "Yeah, I guess. So?"

Kurt rolled his eyes, "Girls are crazy."

Puck nodded in agreement.

"I'll see you later," Santana grabbed her purse and stood up, strutting out.

"I'm ready to go," Rachel announced, breaking her silence.

Puck threw some cash on the table and walked out behind Finn, Kurt, and Rachel.

At the front door, Finn hugged Rachel. He knew something was wrong, but he didn't know what. He kissed the top of her head and told her to call him if she wanted to talk later. She silently nodded and watched as Finn and Kurt walked off.

Puck walked Rachel to her car watching the diva walk with her arms crossed and her head down. When they got to her car, she turned to him, "I appreciate what you tried to do, but when school starts tomorrow things will be as they were before." She paused, "Maybe that's how it was meant to be."

"You gonna stay with Finn?" Puck asked running a hand over his mowhawk.

Rachel nodded. "He's standing up for me now and he's sweet." She sighed. So what if he couldn't remember her favorite flower? That didn't really matter right?

Puck put his hands in his pockets and fished out his eyes, "Alright well...see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye Noah."

The next day Rachel managed to dodge two slushies and a pack of Cheerios who may or may not have contained Quinn. It didn't matter. Staying away from Cheerios was usually a good thing until she knew exactly what was in their hands and their immediate surroundings. Her classes were the usual first day routine. Teacher intro, syllabus, "tell me something about yourself", and "talk amongst yourselves". She had a grand total of two classes with Quinn who seemed to be avoiding Rachel as much as Rachel was avoiding her.

When glee came around, she knew there was no more avoiding Quinn. There were only eleven kids in glee so it was hard to hid behind other people and there was no teacher that was going to monopolize their time.

Brittany and Santana were in the music room before everyone else, huddled in the corner giggling. Apparently they had gotten over Brittany abandoning Santana and Santana sleeping with Puck. Rachel silently sat on the front row, keeping her head down hoping that neither one would talk to her.

Everyone else started to filter in in their usual groups. Rachel tried to keep reading a book so that she wouldn't know when Quinn arrived. However, as she was reading an all too familiar scent settled over her. Quinn was there.

"Welcome back guys," Mr. Schue stood in front of them, "How was everyone's summer?"

An unenthusiastic round of, "Okay," was muttered.

"Well are there any songs you guys heard over the summer?" he asked them.

Everyone looked at Rachel who was quiet. She kept her eyes on her skirt, tracing the argyle lines.

"Nothing?" he asked everyone, but directed it more at Rachel.

Rachel didn't look up, "Not that I can think of right now."

"Well…anyone else?"

Brittany raised her hand.

Mr. Schue looked up at her, "Brittany?"

"Exactly."

"What?"

"Britney," Brittany stated, "Her new song. It's pretty awesome."

"Agreed," Tina nodded from the other side of the room. The rest of the girls nodded with the exception or Rachel.

Mr. Schue smiled, "I smell a girls jam coming on."

"It wasn't me," Finn looked around.

They guys stayed in the music room and jammed while the girls dug through their costumes for something to wear. Santana and Mercedes decided that they should all rock the Ke$ha look with ripped, shirts and worn out jeans or skirts.

"I'm so hot," Brittany mused as she looked at herself in the mirror.

Santana looked over her shoulder as she was fixing Brittany's hair and told Rachel, "Rachel do Q's eyes so we can get this show on the road. Use the blue glitter eyeshadow."

Rachel looked around for someone else to do it, but Mercedes was helping Tina put some safety pins in her ragged out jeans so they wouldn't fall completely off. She sighed. She knew she was going to have to do it and she was going to have to get over her Quinn aversion for the sake of the glee club.

Rachel grabbed the eyeshadow and walked over to Quinn who was sitting in a chair, fluffing her hair in the mirror. When she saw Rachel, she sat down wordlessly and looked at the mirror.

The brunette put the eyeshadow on the counter and moved Quinn's hair out of her face. To be feeling Quinn's hair again was incredible. She took her time, making sure to get all the hair out of Quinn's face before picking up the applicator.

"Look up," Rachel let out in an almost whisper.

Quinn's hazel eyes met the ceiling. She was having trouble keeping her breathing in check. She was nervous that if Rachel leaned close enough she could hear her heart revving in her chest.

"Let me know if I hurt you," Rachel added as she carefully applied the makeup.

"Are you doing the half face glitter thing or just like the dripping mascara thing?"

"The dripping mascara thing, but blue," Rachel explained. She bent down close to Quinn's face, fighting the urge to just kiss her. Their faces were so close together.

When Rachel spoke, Quinn could feel her breath again her cheek. The warmth spread through her whole body. She started counting the dots in the ceiling panels so that her mind would be occupied while Rachel was close.

"Okay so I think me and B should time the first verse, you know get the guys all excited then Tina and Mercedes can split the second verse and Quinn and Rachel can do the choruses," Santana suggested.

Everyone agreed. Mostly because they were going on soon and none of them could think of anything better.

"Uh oh," Rachel put the make applicator back in the box and gently swept some excess glitter off of Quinn's cheek with her thumb. This action caused her to unintentionally cup Quinn's cheek. Their eyes locked and neither one could look away.

Rachel wasn't quite sure but it seemed like their heads and more importantly their lips were getting closer.

"Whatcha doin'?" Santana appeared next to them with her hands on her hips. Her voice was fraudulently innocent, but the smirk on her face was far from it.

Rachel shot up straight, "Just finishing."

"Uh huh," Santana looked at Quinn who was scrambling out of the chair and to the mirror to look herself over and get out of the situation. "Well you two need to make it hot for the song. Follow mine and Brittany's lead. We got this."

On stage the girls stood in a 'v' with Brittany and Santana in the front. The music pulse around them and they all moved on their own before joining in the loosely choreographed dance. Santana pointed at Brittany and drew her over with the come-hither finger as she sang.

_Hey over there_  
_Please forgive me_  
_If I'm coming on too strong_  
_Hate to stare_  
_But you're winning_  
_And they're playing my favorite song_

Mr. Schue buried his face in his hands. He was just grateful that no one else was going to see this performance. He knew who was running this song and made a mental note to always preview everything Santana ever was in charge of.

Brittany looked out at the guys who were sitting in the crowd. Santana wrapped her arms around Brittany's waist they started grinding on each other as Brittany belted out her lines.

_So come here_  
_'Little closer_  
_Wanna whisper in your ear_  
_Make it clear_  
_Little question_  
_Wanna know just how you feel_

Puck whistled as Brittany and Santana disengaged and moved to the back of the stage so that Tina and Mercedes could take over. Their performance wasn't as sexual as Brittany and Santana's, but it was just as vocally charged.

_If I said my heart was beating loud_  
_If we could escape the crowd somehow_  
_If I said I want your body now_  
_Would you hold it against me_

_Cause you feel like paradise_  
_And I need a vacation tonight_  
_So if I said I want your body now_  
_Would you hold it against me_

Quinn looked across the stage at Rachel and smirked. This could be fun. There was obviously still chemistry between them as proven by the dressing room ordeal. Quinn bent over and arched her back, slowly standing back up. She saw Rachel lick her lips and grinned. It would definitely be fun.

Quinn strutted to the center of the stage and started singing. As she sang she grabbed Rachel's hand and pulled her closer than she needed to be and sang right to Rachel.

_Hey you might think_  
_That I'm crazy_  
_But you know I'm just your type_  
_I might be 'little hazy_  
_But you just cannot deny_

Rachel gulped. She knew it was her turn to sing next, but she was scared that nothing would come out of her mouth. Everything about Quinn oozed sexy at that moment. But Rachel was a performer and she was going to perform. She turned toward the audience and sang as Quinn danced around her, occasionally accidentally brushing against Rachel on purpose.

_There's a spark between us_  
_When we're dancing on the floor_  
_I want more_  
_Wanna see it_  
_So I'm asking you tonight_

All the girls froze in place and the music stopped. They all sang the rest of the song acapella. A forceful wall of voices, harmonizing and blowing away the audience of guys.

_If I said my heart was beating loud_  
_If we could escape the crowd somehow_  
_If I said I want your body now_  
_Would you hold it against me_

_Cause you feel like paradise_  
_And I need a vacation tonight_  
_So if I said I want your body now_  
_Would you hold it against me_

When the song was over, they all struck a pose. Quinn was crouched by Rachel's leg, one hand on the brunette's thigh, her fingertips disappearing under her skirt. Rachel automatically brought her hand down to Quinn's hair, wrapping her fingers in it with her other hand thrust in the air toward the lights.

All the guys in the audience stood up clapping and yelling at the top of their lungs.

Quinn couldn't seem to move out of her position. Her hand firmly planted on Rachel's thigh. The adrenaline of the song was over and reality was starting to set back in. If she moved her hand up a few more inches…

Quinn shot up and announced as she walked off of the stage, "I forgot that I have an appointment. See you guys later." As soon as she was out of the auditorium she was sprinting down the hall to quickly gather her things. She walked out of the school, still in her trashy-chic outfit hurrying to her car.

Santana cornered Rachel in the dressing room as the shorter girl was removing the purple streaks from across her face. "What's going on Berry?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rachel answered, not missing a beat. She finished wiping the remnants of one of the streaks and tossed the cotton ball into the trash before picking up another one.

"Don't fuck with me," Santana bobbed her head, "I'm am the head Cheerio and I can make your life hell. What's going on with you and Q?"

Rachel shook her head, "I still have no idea what you're talking about." She turned around to face Santana, which turned out to be the wrong course of action.

Santana took a step forward, pinned Rachel between her and the counter. "I _will_ find out. From you or from her, but until then you will be slushied so much that you won't be dry all damn day. Now I'm going to ask one more time. What's going on?"

The smaller diva set her jaw and tried to return Santana's ferocity, "I don't know what you're talking about."

The head Cheerio huffed and backed away, "Whatever. It's your funeral."

Rachel leaned her head back against the mirror and let out a heavy sigh. If this summer hadn't happened this way, if she had just turned down the bet that Puck offered she wouldn't be in this mess, but truth be told she'd do it the exact same way again. And that meant dealing with the consequences. She turned to the mirror and resumed taking off the stage makeup, trying to remember where she left her raincoat.


	10. Chapter 10

"Spill it Fabray," Santana walked up behind her before school started. "Something is up with you and Berry."

Quinn glanced at Brittany who apparently hadn't told Santana the vague PG version of what was happening that Quinn had told her when they went to the movies.

Santana looked between them, "What? Brit you knew?"

"Not really," Quinn defended her, "Just the vague gist. No details."

Santana turned to Brittany who spouted, "They got to be friends when Rachel told her they couldn't be friends anymore cause people at school wouldn't like it."

Santana narrowed her eyes, studying Quinn, "That's not all of it. There's something janky."

Quinn shook her head, "That's it."

The brunette turned on her heel and walked off, "I'll find out. RuPaul is going to break."

Quinn watched her walk away, wondering what she meant by that.

The stream of slushies was relentless. Rachel had brought extra clothes and had put them in Finn's locker because he never used it anyway. It was only second period and she had already changed three times. She was quickly running out of clothes.

She was at Finn's locker getting out some clean clothes when another slushy covered her. She was beginning to lose her will to keep her mouth shut. She wiped the sugary substance out of her eyes and opened the locker.

She had been keeping her dirty clothes in a paper bag on the bottom of the locker and her clean clothes hung up, but when she opened the locker she sound all of the clothes hanging up. Rachel yanked the sweater down that she left the house in this morning, the one that first caught the slushy of the day and the one that she was sure she was going to have to spot treat. It was clean. The spots were gone. She smelled it and it smelled like dryer sheets.

Rachel looked around her at the passing people. She saw Finn walk toward her. When he got to her, she asked, "Finn what's spot treating?"

"Um when a doctor comes to your house?" he asked, "Are you using my locker for clothes?"

Rachel put the sweater back and pushed her bangs out of her face, hoping that the slushy wouldn't make them stick up. "Yeah. I knew I was going to be bombarded today. My locker has been turned into a temporary hair care station."

"I keep asking everyone why they keep slushying you," Finn explained, "They keep telling me that they're doing it because Santana told them to, but no one knows why she told them to."

Rachel shook her head, "It's stupid. She's just being her usual vicious self. I'm sure pretty soon the footballs players arms will get tired from throwing them or the entire town will run out of slushy mix." She picked out a new outfit and started walking toward the bathroom, "Does anyone else know the combination to your locker?"

Finn shrugged, "I don't think so, but I haven't changed my combination since…third grade."

Rachel had a theory as to who had washed her clothes. It had to be someone who had access to a washing machine on campus, someone who knew the combination, someone who cared enough to do it, and someone who knew how to take care of clothes properly. There was an athletics laundry room where the football players had twenty-year-old washing machines that rarely worked right next to the Cheerios washers and driers that were strictly for socks. Rachel accidentally wandered into there one day looking for the gym. She had yet to find the gym.

So it was a football player or Cheerio. It wasn't Finn for sure. Santana wouldn't do it and Rachel was sure that she heard Brittany say that she thought that elves did her laundry in their underwater stream behind her house. That left Mike, Puck, and Quinn. She was almost sure it wasn't Mike. She doubted that he cared enough to go out of his way for her. Puck was being really nice, but despite being the only male living with three women she doubted that he would spot treat her favorite sweater.

That left Quinn. Who just so happened to be walking down the hall towards them. Rachel was planning to duck her head until she was sure it was Quinn washing her clothes, but Finn called her over.

"Do you know why Santana is having everyone slushy Rachel?" Finn asked Quinn.

The blonde kept her books to her chest and shrugged, "Santana isn't subtle." She surveyed Rachel with what she hoped was a neutral eye. "If she hasn't already told you, she will."

Rachel raised her eyebrows when Quinn was looking at her to illustrate that yes she did know, but no she didn't want Finn to know. The blonde nodded, "Well, I am going to get out of the slash zone. Later." She waved at them as she walked off.

Rachel caught Quinn looking back at her. When Quinn knew she was caught she crooked her finger at Rachel before turning forward.

The brunette looked at Finn, "You know I think I'm going to go…that way…" Rachel turned around and followed Quinn at a safe, dripping distance before Quinn disappeared into the Cheerio locker room. Rachel hesitantly opened the door and stepped in.

Rachel slowly walked into the seemingly empty locker room. The shower came on and Rachel followed the sound. When she got to the showers, she didn't find Quinn, but she found a note sticky note on one of the mirrors.

It read: _Take a shower. Leave your dirty clothes on the bench._

The brunette smiled softly at the note and then followed the directions. Rachel really wanted to talk to Quinn, but first she wanted to get this sticky mess off of her.

She found a clean towel in the shower and momentarily paused wondering if this was some sort of trick. Maybe all of her clothes would be missing. But when some slushies trickled it's was through her hair and into her eyes, she didn't care. At least she'd be clean.

Rachel tried to refrain from singing during her shower. Coach Sylvester had made it very, very clear that no one was permitted to use the Cheerios things except fro the Cheerios. If she was caught in this shower, she and probably Quinn would feel the wrath of Sue Sylvester. Quinn would probably be kicked off the Cheerios permanently. That was why she was in this mess in the first place. Every slushy reminded her that Santana would use anything she could find against Quinn so every time Santana was surveying the assault Rachel would wipe sugar out of her eyes and shake her head.

When she got out of the shower, she found that her clean clothes were still there and her dirty clothes were gone. She got dresses and managed to walk into her History class only ten minutes late. She blamed it on the fact that her locker didn't have an electrical outlet in it for her blow dryer and the teacher rolled his eyes.

Rachel lingered in the classroom when the class was over, trying to think of a way to get to her next class without being seen. She peeked out the doorway and saw three football players and two Cheerios with slushies waiting for her. Her shoulders slumped and she walked to them. There was no outrunning them or reasoning with them. They were all just drones operating under a vicious dictator.

All the slushies it her at once, coating her entire body with slushy. She closed her eyes and accepted the social punishment with her chin up.

One of the football players thought it was funny to put the cup upside down on Rachel's head as he walked off. She could hear snickers all around her so she took it off and tossed it into a trashcan.

She tried to get into Finn's locker, but the dial kept slipping in her fingers. She finally gave up and leaned back against the lockers, sliding down to the floor. A pool of slushy was accumulated around her. She drew her knees to her chest and dropped her forehead on her knees. She was starting to wonder if she could transfer schools.

"Why aren't you giving Santana what she wants?" Quinn's voice asked.

Rachel looked up and saw Quinn standing there, clutching her books with a sympathetic gaze. "Because she wants to know what happened between us. You just got back on the squad. You're still on probation. It would ruin you. Santana won't even admit that she and Brittany are together or at least are head over heels for each other and Brittany is a Cheerio who everyone likes. I'm a nobody who no one likes." She leaned her head back on the lockers, "I mean it should almost be over. I don't think anywhere in town is going to have slushies soon."

Quinn sighed, "Rach, you can just tell her."

"No because," Rachel defiantly relied, "Santana needs to be taught that just because she wants something doesn't mean she can have it."

The Cheerio stepped up to Finn's locker and opened it for Rachel. The shorter girl stood up and got some clean clothes out of the locker before closing it. Quinn looked at Rachel for a few seconds before adding, "There's got to be a better way to teach her a lesson."

Rachel shrugged, "I can't think of a better way." She started walking toward the bathroom and Quinn walked next to her.

"Just tell her," Quinn pleaded.

After she surveyed Quinn, Rachel looked straight ahead and asked, "What'll happen to you?"

"It doesn't matter," the blonde watched her feet hit the tile floors, "I did okay being last year, not being a Cheerio. If coach wants to kick me off, I'll be fine."

"But you like being a Cheerio," Rachel quietly added.

"Yeah I do," Quinn nodded, "But I don't need it."

The shorter girl paused in front of the bathroom door, "Then it's worth it." She didn't give Quinn time to process what she had just said. She stepped into the bathroom disappeared behind the door.

The blonde girl frowned. She stood alone in the middle of the hallway staring hard at the white tiles that gleamed in the sunlight. Rachel was willing to suffer to protect Quinn. That was a total contradiction of what Rachel said that night at the theatre. At least a contradiction of what she heard.

Quinn stood outside the door of the bathroom, waiting for Rachel to come out. When she finally did, Quinn pushed off of the wall she was leaning on. Rachel was surprised that Quinn was still outside but part of her expected it.

"You're totally screwing with my head," Quinn offered up in a factual voice, "You tell me one thing and then do something totally different."

"What are you talking about?" Rachel frowned as they walked back to Finn's locker.

A few long strides and a turn on her toes put Quinn standing directly in front of Rachel, "You tell me that we can't be friends because of social statuses or something then you go around trying to protect my social status and you're miserable doing it. I thought you thought I wasn't good enough for you."

"What?" Rachel asked bewildered, "I never said that."

"But it's what you meant," Quinn's eyes flickered to the doors behind Rachel then back to the brunette.

"It was most certainly not," Rachel stated as if it offended her that Quinn thought otherwise.

Quinn's voice lowered considerably, "Then why did you break up with me?"

After a sigh passed over her lips, Rachel crossed her arms, "We were never together Quinn. I couldn't break up with you."

The Cheerio tried to pretend to be annoyed at Rachel's correction and act like it didn't matter what she said, "You know what I mean."

"Because…" Rachel paused, her eyes falling to Quinn's shoes, " I was scared. I knew I was…developing some…unrequited feeling and that in the end I'd get hurt."

"How do you know that?" Quinn tilted her head to the side.

Rachel didn't really want to elaborate, but Quinn was blocking path, "You're popular. You're gorgeous, talented and you're brilliant. At my best I'm just talented." She swallowed hard as she waited for Quinn's reaction.

Quinn bit her lip thoughtfully before adding, "You're not-"

She was interrupted by the bell ringing throughout the school. The hallway started to flood with people.

"If you want you can come over after school and we can talk," Rachel quickly added and disappeared into the crowd.

Quinn searched the masses for Rachel, but couldn't find the smaller girl. Someone calling her name captured her attention and she looked once again in the direction Rachel walked off in before walking over the group of Cheerios that had called her.


	11. Chapter 11

When she got home, Rachel immediately got into the shower. She's been slushied so much that it was starting to run down in unmentionable places. She was even too distracted to fight for a solo in glee. So while she watched Brittany sing and tried to dodge Santana's glare, she kept trying to ignore the trickle of blue slushy down her spine.

Once she was out of the shower and her hair was dried, there was nothing for her to do but wait to see if Quinn was going to come over. As she sat on her bed contemplating what to do, her eyes fell onto the Bewitched DVDs that had been sitting on top of her TV unopened. She pushed herself up off of the bed and walked over to it She picked it up, turning it over in her hands, reading the back. Finally she ripped open the plastic wrap.

After putting in the first DVD in, she laid down on her bed and stared at the TV. She was so engrossed in her show that she didn't notice Quinn until she sat on her bed.

Rachel smiled and started to sit up. A gently hand on her shoulder stopped her. Quinn pushed her back down on the bed. When Rachel was on her back, she looked up at Quinn whose face was unreadable.

Quinn laid down on the bed next to Rachel and laid her head on Rachel's stomach, her face turned toward the TV. After a few minutes of watching the show Rachel started to play with Quinn's ponytail. The blonde sat up, but only long enough to free her hair from her Cheerio ponytail, not even taking her eyes off of the TV. When she laid back down her hair was splayed across Rachel's stomach, a halo of golden locks.

Rachel absently ran her fingers the length of Quinn's hair while they went through the entire first disk. When the menu popped up on the screen, Quinn slowly got off of the bed and stretched. Her top was riding up so that a sliver of skin was visible just above her Cheerio skirt.

"Are you leaving?" Rachel asked rolling onto her side.

Quinn nodded, "I have a lot of homework to do." She knelt down and picked up her purse. "See you tomorrow."

"Oookay," Rachel was a slightly confused at Quinn's exit, but the more she thought about it the more she was just happy that Quinn came over and they were bonding again, albeit while watching a TV show and not speaking, but it was better than nothing.

Four days later and a routine had been established. Rachel would go home, turn on Bewitched, Quinn would appear. They would watch the show, their limbs tangled and then Quinn would leave. They didn't talk much, but that was okay for the moment.

Rachel was also currently enjoying a slushy reprieve. While she drying off in a shower in the Cheerio's locker room, Rachel heard two very familiar voices arguing in hushed tones as they walked in.

"I know it's mean Brit," Santana explained, "I'm trying to get her to tell me what I need to know."

"You could just ask," Brittany replied. Rachel heard a locker open, "What did I forget?"

"You're math book," Santana sighed, "I already asked. They wouldn't tell me."

Brittany was apparently in a snarky mood because she stated, "Maybe it's because you're mean to them. I want you to stop making people throw slushies at Rachel."

"Wha-Brit, I can't just stop," Santana said in a slightly whiney voice.

"Fine," Brittany huffed and Rachel heard the locker close.

"Brittany," Santana pleaded, "Don't be like that. I just have to….Brittany, please don't be mad at me."

Rachel eyes widened at hearing Santana beg. She never thought she'd see the day where she'd see Santana beg….or hear her.

"Stop slushying Rachel," the blonde Cheerio stated.

Santana heavily sighed, "How long?"

"For…ever," Brittany said.

"How about a month?" Santana countered.

"Okay," the dancer happily agreed.

Rachel sort of wished Brittany was a better negotiator, but was thankful that she had a little time to wear her favorite sweater again. Her eyes got huge when she heard a moan and something hit the lockers with a soft thud. "Mmm, San," Brittany breathed, " We have to get to class."

"Alright," Santana stated then whispered something Rachel couldn't hear. Brittany giggled and Rachel was sure she didn't want to hear it. Then she heard them leave, the door clicking closed behind them.

On Friday, Rachel was glad to be home. With all the drama in glee she was glad to be home where she would just relax. She turned on Bewitched and started picking up her room. She had a hell of a time deciding what to wear that morning so there were clothes everywhere. In the deep recesses of her subconscious, she knew she was getting dressed up for Quinn. She wanted Quinn to notice her when she walked down the hall. She smiled because she knew it worked at least once because when she looked over her shoulder at Finn and Quinn talking, she saw both of them looking back. Quinn returned her gaze with a coy smirk while Finn's expression was laced with pride. He was dating that hot gleek in that short skirt

Once her room was clean, she fell back onto the bed and turned on the side to watch the show. She fleetingly thought that she should probably work out or something. She'd spend the last week just laying on her bed.

But all thoughts of working out had evaporated when the reason she had been laying in bed all week. Quinn smiled shyly from the doorway before her eyes dropped to the floor next to Rachel's bed. She slowly and stiffly made her way over to the bed.

"Are you okay?" Rachel sat up and crossed her legs.

Quinn nodded and very slowly lowered herself onto the bed, facedown. "Coach just made me pay for insubordination with a really, really long run."

"What did you do?" Rachel asked. She moved her hand to were Quinn was awkwardly massaging the small of her back. She slid her hand under Quinn and started to gently massage the area with the tips of her fingers.

Quinn paused to swallow a moan then explained, "She was about to make Brittany cry. I didn't remember her being that much of a bitch."

"Where was Santana?" Rachel asked, moving closer to Quinn and started to use her other hand.

"I don't know," Quinn sighed, contently, "Even if she was there she probably wouldn't have said anything. She's scared now. I'm back and she's scared that I'll be head Cheerio again." Quinn couldn't help a smug smile from sliding across her face as Endora appeared on the screen. She tilted her head, not being able to help imaging Coach Sylvester in that tall read hair and green and purple dress throwing backhanded comments and sabotaging everything in sight.

"Are you?" Rachel asked quietly, moving her hands up Quinn's back.

"Am I what?" Quinn turned her head to look at Rachel.

"Are you going to be head Cheerio again?"

"Oh," Quinn shrugged and winced when Rachel hit a particularly knotted spot on her back, "I don't know."

"I'm sorry," Rachel whispered an apology. Then she resumed her massage, "Is that your plan?"

The blonde frowned, "Do I have to have a plan?"

"I didn't mean that you needed to have a plan," Rachel shrugged, "I guess that since you're so good whatever it is you do I just assumed that you'd have to have some sort of plan."

The Cheerio was able to fish the compliment out of that babbling and smiled, "No there's no plan. Not yet anyway. Right now I'm just happy to watch Santana squirm."

Rachel hit another sore spot and she could see Quinn's face contort with pain. She immediately apologized and suggested, "Why don't you get in your hot tub?"

Quinn pondered the suggestion, knowing it was a good one. But she shook her head, "I think if I don't get my Bewitched I may go into withdrawal."

Rachel chuckled and looked up at the TV to notice that she was halfway thought the episode and she hadn't realized it. She looked back at Quinn to find the blonde had rolled onto her side and looking at her and not the TV. She held Quinn's hazel eyes for a while before letting out a smile and brushing some strands of blonde hair that had fallen from her ponytail out of Quinn's face.

When she did this, Quinn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She watched Quinn's chest rise and fall with the breath wondering when just watching Quinn had become so relaxing.

Rachel's eyes on her were near palpable. Quinn could feel Rachel tracing her neck with her eyes before they come to settle on her lips. Goosebumps ran up and down her arms and her lips tingled. She slowly ran her tongue over her lips and watched as Rachel's eyes got marginally wider. A corner of her mouth curled up in a satisfied smirk.

Finally Rachel's eyes flickered to Quinn's eyes and then darted away, having been caught staring. She was a little worried that Quinn would know what she had been thinking about and a deep blush crawled up her cheeks.

Quinn being Quinn decided to milk this for all it was worth. She rolled the rest of the way onto her back and brought her hands up over her head in a stretch. One of her legs bent at the knee and her back arched up off of the bed.

Rachel was trying to think of any innocent thing that was stored away in her mind, but it seemed her whole brain had been rendered useless by Quinn stretching. This was pathetic. She was just stretching.

"I think the hot tub sounds like a good idea," Quinn's voice was raspy and it shot heat all the way through Rachel's body before it centralized in one very special place.

Rachel's face flushed. Quinn stood up and picked up her purse. Rachel pushed herself up onto her elbows regaining the luxury of speech, "Oh well, have fun."

"You're coming with me," Quinn swiftly pulled Rachel to her feet. Rachel wasn't quiet sure how she got her shoes on and her purse on her arm, but she was fully aware that the whole time Quinn had not let go of her hand until they were both in Quinn's car.

"I-I-I didn't bring my swimsuit," Rachel finally managed to stutter out when she was drug into Quinn's house.

"I did," Quinn smirked and tossed one of Rachel's bags onto the bed. Rachel walked over to it and opened the bag. Her swimsuit as well as a t-shirt, a toothbrush, and some lotion were inside of it. "Am I spending the night?" She didn't remember when Quinn had managed to gather her things.

"Yup," Quinn peeled off of her Cheerio top and just like that Rachel was back into her haze. She barely registered Quinn laughing and pushing her into the bathroom with her swimsuit in her hand telling her to meet her in the hot tub.

When the door closed, Rachel took a few calming breaths and hummed a few scales to clear her mind. She remembered that she was supposed to be mad at Quinn for the bet. They were supposed to have a long, deep talk about the bet and it's effect on their relationship, but all that was thrown to the wayside. They were back to the summer when the nights were long and nothing really mattered.

But the difference now was that Rachel knew it did matter. She needed to talk to Quinn. A serious talk without turning into a drooling zombie. She looked at herself in the mirror and looked at her eyes that were still slightly glazed over. She rolled her eyes at herself, "Good luck with that."


	12. Chapter 12

When she stepped outside into the night, Rachel saw Quinn sitting in the hot tub with her head resting on the ledge and her eyes close. Rachel sucked in a large breath and counted to ten before exhaling. Then she stepped onto the deck and walked over to the hot tub. She managed to get into the water and sunk up to her neck before Quinn knew she was there.

The blonde smiled at Rachel, "You're right. This feels amazing."

Rachel found her eyes trailing down the tiny bead of water from Quinn's shoulder, slowly down her collarbone and between her breasts. When she realized what she was doing, she look out over at the pool that was once again fading from purple to blue to green and starting all over. "Hot tubs are always good for sore muscles."

A sweet smile slid onto Quinn's face. She saw what Rachel just did. For an actress, the shorter girl was really obvious about some things. Instead of slapping her like Quinn would have done had it been anyone else, she was internally flattered.

"So," Quinn leaned her head back on the ledge and closed her eyes again, "Any plans for the weekend?"

"Besides spending the night here?" Rachel chanced a sideways glance back at Quinn, suddenly noticing how kissable Quinn's neck looked. She sunk into the water and leaned back, looking up at the sky. "No." She paused, "Do my dads know I'm spending the night?"

"Yeah," Quinn answered, opening her eyes to watched Rachel.

Rachel's eyes traced as my constellations as she could remember before she looked back down at Quinn. She found the blonde looking at her with a hint of a smile. "What?" Rachel couldn't help, but smile back.

"You're pretty awesome," Quinn put some hair that had fallen loose, behind her ear.

"Really?"

Quinn nodded, "You took at least twenty slushies this week and you still walked around with your head up. I know you said you did it because Santana needs to stop being a selfish bitch, but is there another reason?"

"I never said selfish bitch," Rachel replied.

"You were a lot nice about it," Quinn smirked.

Rachel nodded. Then she readjusted her top, keeping her eyes down, "Yeah. I already told you. I did it for you. To protect you." She bit her lip and looked up at Quinn keeping her head down.

In one swift movement and a deep whoosh of water, Quinn was straddling Rachel's lap, her wet hands softly caressing the skin of her neck. Rachel's head tilted up and she found Quinn's hazel eyes boring down into her own. She saw Quinn's cheek twitch as she bit the inside of her cheek, deep in thought.

Rachel's hands planted themselves on Quinn's thighs, scared at Quinn would fall backwards, even though it most likely wouldn't hurt the blonde. She stayed stationary, wondering if Quinn would ever move again and hoping to god she never decided to leave her spot on her lap.

"Why do you want to protect me?" Quinn whispered, her lips mere inches from Rachel's.

Rachel swallowed the lump in her throat before answering, "Because I care about you Quinn. I hate it when you're sad." Her eyes dropped again, this time to the small space between them were water was boiling, "I…Every time I see you cry at school I can't stop thinking about it. One time it hurt me so bad to see you like that I had to get to the nearest bathroom so no one would see me cry."

"Even when I was so horrible to you?" Quinn's voice cracked. Tears started to accumulate in her eyes.

"Don't cry," Rachel could feel her chest start to tighten up. She could feel the weight of Quinn's emotions through her eyes and it was crushing. She decided to answer Quinn's question before one or more probably both of them started to cry. "I know you're scared, not as much as you were before, but… I understand. I knew that you didn't really hate me."

Quinn shook her head as the first tear made it's way down her cheek, "I never hated you."

"I know," Rachel moved one of her hands to Quinn's back and started rubbing her back in small circles in what she hoped was a comforting way.

When Rachel's eyes started to fill with tears, Quinn shook her head again and pressed her forehead to Rachel's, "Please don't cry."

Rachel sniffled and let out a reassuring smile, "You first."

Quinn put her hands on either side of Rachel's face and chuckled. Quinn slid her arms around Rachel's neck squeezing their bodies together.

Rachel closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Quinn's waist. When Quinn pulled back her hands slipped to Quinn's sides, resting in the middle of her ribs. Quinn kept her arms around Rachel's neck and she smiled at the shorter girl, "You're pretty awesome you know."

"Yeah, I know," Rachel smiled playfully.

Their giggling was interrupted by a crash. Quinn nearly jumped all the way out of the hot tub. Rachel's eyes darted to the edge of the yard where the fence stopped next to the house. She saw a bushy fro sticking up next to a camera with the little red light on.

"Jacob!" Rachel shrieked.

Quinn looked over to where she was staring and hopped out of the pool. Jacob took off running, but Quinn gracefully caught up to his awkward gait. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled backwards, resulting in him falling onto the grass in the front yard of her house.

"What the hell are you doing?" Quinn asked, looking down at him.

His eyes shifted from Quinn to Rachel who was walking up to them with a towel wrapped around her middle, "I was walking to my fellow guildie's house when I heard Rachel's heavenly voice talking so I had to see what she was doing at your house." He looked back at Quinn. "I supposed I caught you in at a rather intimate moment."

"Give me the camera," Rachel demanded.

"Show me your boobs," he immediately replied.

"No," Rachel and Quinn said together. Rachel's came out in more of a squeak while Quinn's was vicious.

"If you don't want to end up hanging by your underwear in a stall of the girls bathroom at school then you'll give me the damn camera," Quinn growled.

Jacob looked around and handed her the camera sighing.

Quinn handed it to Rachel who started to examine it. Jacob stood up and started to walk away. "Hold it," Rachel called, "Where's the SD card?"

Jacob tried to run away, but after a few strikes Quinn caught him again, "You like sitting in the dumpster don't you?"

He looked back at Rachel, "Just a little boob? I don't even have to see your ni-"

"I'm calling the cops," Quinn huffed then she let out a trademark evil Cheerio grin, "Or better yet, I'm calling Santana."

"Here," Jacob threw the SD card at Quinn's feet, terrified.

The blonde picked it up and looked him over, "How do I know this is the only one?"

Two minutes later, Jacob was running down the street in his underwear back toward his house. Quinn had made him strip down and then threw his clothes over the fence of her neighbor's yard that happened to be protected by a rather vicious looking rottweiler.

As soon as he was gone, Quinn reached through her neighbors' fence to pet the dog that licked her hand as she cooed, "Good boy. You know how to scare away perverts huh Bruiser?"

Rachel picked up the SD card off of the ground and put it into the camera. "It's a good thing he didn't get this."

Quinn nodded and led the way back to her backyard, "I'm glad you saw that he took that out. I'd never live it down if he posted that on his blog." She took a deep breath, "I was freakin' crying."

"You were worried about them seeing you cry?" Rachel asked, following Quinn through the sliding back door and into the house.

"Yeah," the Cheerio answered walking into the kitchen and opening the refrigerator, "After all the bawling I did last year, Santana will start telling everyone I'm pregnant again."

Rachel looked around the kitchen and peered into the living room to make sure Judy was nowhere to be seen. "You weren't scared that he'd see you with me?…In a…compromising position?"

Quinn was actually terrified, but she didn't want Rachel to know that. They had just mended their undefined relationship. She didn't want Rachel to be thinking about her worries. "It's not a big deal. I mean Santana and Brittany grope each other all over the school and they're at the top of the social pyramid."

"But I'm not…cool like Brittany," Rachel added quietly.

The blonde closed the refrigerator and looked at Rachel. Instead of saying what she was really thinking, she tried to lighten the mood, "Are you calling me Santana?"

Rachel giggled. She leaned on the counter. If Quinn wasn't going to worry about it then she wasn't going to worry about it. It wasn't like they had kissed lately anyway and they were just now talking openly again.

Quinn stepped inside the pantry to compose herself before facing Rachel again. Jacob was lucky that he gave up that camera so easily. Quinn had just gotten her uniform back. She liked Rachel and all. Plus there was this little nagging in her heart that told her that Rachel meant more than she would admit.

Rachel walked to the door of the pantry and saw Quinn staring hard at the cereal. She could tell that Quinn was thinking and was omitting something. She wasn't as self-absorbed and blind to the world as everyone thought. Rachel repeated what she said earlier in the hot tub, "I know you're scared."

Quinn felt Rachel step up to her and wrap her arms around her bare waist. She turned in Rachel's arms and slid her arms around Rachel's neck, feeling comforted by the simple touch.

"It'll be okay Quinn," Rachel whispered, "I promise." She meant it. She was going to do whatever it took to protect Quinn.

Rachel smiled and pulled away from Quinn, "Now we absolutely have to eat. I'm starving."

The blonde nodded, smiling at Rachel's smile, "Thanks Rach."

Rachel let her fingers dance on Quinn's side. The Cheerio shrunk away from the touch. "You're ticklish."

"I know," Quinn stepped out of the pantry and backed away.

Rachel wiggled her fingers and started chasing after Quinn, "C'mon. I just want to find out how ticklish you are."

Quinn ran into the living room and jumped over the couch, laughing, "Raaaaacheeeellll!"


	13. Chapter 13

While Rachel was changing in the bathroom, Quinn pulled on some cotton shorts and a t-shirt. She couldn't help, but look in her full-length mirror. She pulled her shirt up to examine her core. When she measured it was exactly the same as it was before she had her baby, but when she looked in the mirror she saw at least five more pounds.

Quinn pressed the area around her navel. It was firm and smooth. She sighed and dropped her shirt. She wanted to feel like she did before she got pregnant. She turned around and was about to see if Rachel was okay when she saw the other girl already laying on her bed watching her. Quinn's face got hot. Her eyes dropped to her feet. She needed to buy some time so she went to the window and opened it, letting the cool breeze flow into the room.

Rachel reached over and turned off the lamp, sending them into darkness. Quinn took her time getting to the bed and slowly crawled under the covers. She felt Rachel's body heat next to her and moved toward it, finally resting her head on Rachel's shoulder.

"What can I do to convince you that you're beautiful?" Rachel asked quietly.

Quinn was surprised by the question, but sort of knew it was coming. Still, she didn't know how to respond so she remained quiet.

Rachel went on after a moment, "Every guy in the school is after you and I swear that I saw Brittany check you out at least three times."

"I just want things back to the way they were," Quinn sighed heavily. She felt Rachel's fingers lazily trail up and down her arm, "Except for how I treated you obviously."

"I think it's better now," Rachel stated, thoughtfully.

Quinn had to give it to her. There were things that were a whole lot better. She had actual friends now, not just lackeys. She had a mom who promised her at least once a day that she'd always love her no matter what. She had a new, confusing yet thrilling relationship with Rachel. So again she stayed silent. She turned onto her side, draping an arm across Rachel's waist and nuzzling against her neck.

Rachel looked up at the ceiling or looked up into the dark where the ceiling was. She continued to stroke Quinn's arm before moving her hand up to the blonde hair that smelled of chlorine and a scent that was distinctly Quinn. She resisted kissing Quinn's forehead and instead opted to just rest her cheek against Quinn's head.

Just as Rachel was sure Quinn had fallen asleep, Quinn asked, "Will you sing to me?"

"What do you want me to sing?" Rachel asked, running her fingers through Quinn's hair.

"Whatever you want," Quinn pulled herself as close to Rachel as humanly possible.

Rachel knew the perfect song. She readjusted her head so that she'd be able to sing properly. She was Rachel Berry and she never ever half-assed sang anything.

She took a deep breath and started singing quietly in the most intimate and vulnerable performance of her life.

_Moment of honesty  
Someone's gotta take the lead tonight  
Whose it gonna be?  
I'm gonna sit right here  
And tell you all that comes to me  
If you have something to say  
You should say it right now_

_You ready? _

_You give me a feeling that I never felt before  
And I deserve it, I think I deserve it_

_It's becoming something that's impossible to ignore  
And I can't take it_

_I was wondering maybe  
Could I make you my baby?  
If we do the unthinkable would it make us look crazy  
If you ask me I'm ready_

_If you ask me I'm ready_

Quinn squeezed her eyes shut. This song really hit home with her. Laying with Rachel in the dark for the past few weeks had stirred up something that she hadn't ever felt before. There were so many variables though. There was school, their parents, Santana, and most of all she didn't know how Rachel felt. Sure she'd been really sweet, affectionate, and protective, but Rachel was just like that. She stood up for Quinn when she was pregnant and when they were performing Rachel would always take her hand and give her a dazzling smile. When Rachel sang there was always so much emotion in it that Quinn couldn't tell if she really meant what she was singing. Quinn really hoped that Rachel meant this song.

_I know you once said to me  
"This is exactly how it should feel when it's meant to be"  
Time is only wasting so why wait for eventually?  
If we goin' do something 'bout it  
We should do it right now_

_You give me a feeling that I never felt before_

_I was wondering maybe  
Could I make you my baby?  
If we do the unthinkable would it make us look crazy  
If you ask me I'm ready_

_If you ask me I'm ready_

Rachel finished her song and let all of her muscles relax. She felt like she had just confessed a huge secret and it was freeing. Although she was sure Quinn just thought it was a random song Rachel knew better. She had heard that song and knew it was perfect in so many ways. She just wished she'd had the guts to tell Quinn what the song meant.

"Rachel?" Quinn whispered. She wondered if Rachel was asleep and she really wanted to be able to tell her what she was thinking.

"Yeah," Rachel answered, tilting her head down to hopefully get a glance of the hazel eyes that she had grown to love.

Quinn bit her lip searching for something to say. Before she could even get a syllable out splashing could be heard outside her window. Quinn sat up and made her way to the window with Rachel curiously behind her.

When they looked down at the lit up pool, they could make out the figures of Brittany and Santana making out against the wall of the pool. Quinn was unaffected by the scene and walked back to the bed.

Rachel didn't look away, but quietly asked, "Do they do this often?"

Quinn nodded, "Santana likes it because she thinks I don't know, but I made out with Puck and Finn her in pool all the time."

Rachel's eyes got wide when Santana's hand disappeared under the water and Brittany's head lulled back. "Oh my god," the small brunette squeaked and ran back to the bed.

Quinn got up to see what they were doing before shutting the window and laid back down in the bed next to Rachel, "It's just sex. The chlorine will take care of it."

"I didn't- I've never seen…" Rachel shook her head.

Quinn giggled, "You've never been to a party with them. Brittany gets horny when she drinks."

"What does alcohol do to you?" Rachel rolled onto her side to look at Quinn.

The blonde stretched with her arms over her head, "It gets me pregnant."

"If you're only with girls?" Rachel quirked an eyebrow.

"Are you trying to get me drunk?"

The brunette fell back onto her back and looked at the ceiling, "I don't know…I've never had alcohol before. I mean sure I've had champagne on New Years with my dads…"

"Really?" Quinn propped her head up with her elbow, "You're like a virgin at everything huh?"

"As crudely as you put it, yes," Rachel looked up at the blonde.

Quinn studied Rachel's face and watched her contently look back. A slow grin over took her face and she pushed up off of the bed. She walked to the window and opened it. "Hey!" she called. The two Cheerios looked up at her, Brittany in a euphoric grin and Santana with a proud smirk on her face. "Party at my house tomorrow night. Tell everyone."

Santana nodded to show she understood before heaving herself out of the pool and handing Brittany a towel.

Quinn closed the window and fell back onto the bed, "You need to experience more things. You're coming to the party."

"Really?" Rachel yawned, moving closer to Quinn.

The blonde slid her arms around Rachel and pulled her close, "Definitely. You need to relax and be a teenager."

"Mmk," Rachel closed her eyes and snuggled into Quinn. She would have agreed to anything Quinn wanted her to at that moment.

"You're sleepy," Quinn smiled and brushed the bangs out of Rachel's face.

A small nod was the only response that Quinn got. A few minutes later, Rachel was peacefully sleeping in her arms. She gently placed a kiss on Rachel's forehead before curling into her and allowing herself to go to sleep as she mentally planned the party.


	14. Chapter 14

They spent the next day cleaning the house for the party and lounging around watching movies. Quinn's mom took off for her sister's house in Dayton in the late-afternoon making the girls promise to eat well when she was gone and asking Rachel to keep an eye on Quinn.

Once everything was set up, Puck brought over the booze. Where he came up with these things, no one was really sure, but everyone was grateful. Brittany and Santana showed up a few minutes after him and then half of the school flooded the house.

"How's your first party so far?" Quinn asked Rachel as they were both making their drinks.

Rachel smiled, "It's fun. Thanks for doing this."

"No problem," the blonde grinned before someone called her.

Santana stood in the living room, shaking her head, "Something's up."

Brittany looked at the ceiling.

"No B. Something's up with Q and Man-Hands," Santana looked across the room, surveying the crowd.

In her defense, the last time Santana told her to look up, there who mistletoe and it made for one...festive night. "What do you mean?"

"Stubbles has been drooling all over Q and she likes it. Plus have you seen how she's dressing now? Berry is definitely not dressing herself anymore thank god."

Brittany's eyes raked up and down Rachel who was standing in the kitchen as Finn lumbered over to her. She was wearing black tights, an oversized purple sweater without the animal print on it and black flats. Her only jewelry was a gold star necklace.

"She's got sexy legs," Brittany commented.

Santana frowned, "C'mon." She pulled Brittany into the kitchen and the walked up to Rachel. Santana had a renewed dislike of the shorter girl.

"You look awesome," Finn smirked at Rachel, not subtle in the least about checking her out.

She grinned, "Thank you."

Santana walked up to Rachel and narrowed her eyes, her pinkie locked around Brittany's. "I'm going to find out. One way or another."

"What is she talking about?" Finn asked.

Rachel feigned ignorance and shrugged, "Who knows? Come with me to get some punch?"

"Sure." Finn shrugged.

Rachel was bothered by Santana's threat. She liked having an amazing secret that no one knew about. For once she knew something no one else did and her secret made her extremely happy.

"Don't fall in Q. I wouldn't want to have to jump in after you." Santana said from the back door.

Quinn had come outside for a breather and was just enjoying the lights changing colors in the pool. She turned around and found Santana with a bottle of vodka in her hand.

"Who is B making out with?"

Santana took a long deep drink and put the bottle down on the ground. She took off her shirt and kicked off her pants, apparently ignoring Quinn's question.

"S, I don't think you should be swimming if you're that drunk," Quinn offered trying not to sound too concerned.

"I'm not drunk," Santana huffed and jumped into the water. She grabbed the vodka and swam to the waterfall disappearing on the other side. Quinn pulled her shirt off and slid off her jeans. She couldn't let Santana sulk by herself. She'd come back hammered and have sex with some guy. She rolled her eyes and thought that it definitely wasn't fair that Santana could have sex with whomever she wanted and the first time Quinn had sex she got pregnant.

Quinn took her drink over to the waterfall and covered the top of her cup when she went through it. Santana looked surprised to see her there, but didn't tell her to leave.

"Why do you always get like this?" Quinn asked.

"I don't get like anything," Santana growled.

The blonde raised an eyebrow, "You have a problem." She offered her cup to Santana who poured a healthy amount of vodka into what was left of Quinn's drink.

Santana rolled her eyes, "I have a problem? You're sneaking around with Berry."

"It's not what you think it is."

"I think it's exactly what I think it is."

"That's because you're drunk."

"I'm not fucking drunk."

"You'll be fucking drunk soon and Puck's going to be excited about it."

"Screw you."

Quinn rolled her eyes and took a sip of her drink, sitting on the ledge inside the waterfall. "I'm gonna go make out with Brittany."

"Like hell you are."

"Why not? She's not your girlfriend."

Santana looked away and crossed her arms, "Fuck it. Do whatever you want. You can even pull RuPaul in a have a big gay threesome. I don't care."

"I may just do that," Quinn kept going. She knew Santana was going to follow her to make sure she didn't actually do it.

When she got inside she found Rachel leaning on the back of the couch with Puck standing next to her. She giggled and put her hand on his chest. He smiled down at her and shook his head. Quinn took a long drink out of her cup and started to walked past them.

"Hey Q," Puck grabbed her arm as she walked past. He pulled her back, "I think Rachel needs your help."

"With what?" Quinn asked, looking at him.

Puck didn't answer. He just walked off. Rachel looked at Quinn and tapped her nose, "You're so cute."

"Cute?" Quinn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Rachel bit her lip and unabashedly ran her eyes over the cleavage that was peeking over the top of Quinn's tank top, "I saw you in the pool."

"Uh oh," Quinn smirked, "You're a horny drunk aren't you?"

Rachel giggled and nodded.

Quinn looked around and spotted Santana about to start a fight. She couldn't let the girl break anything in the house and she totally cared for Santana's safety…mostly.

"Hey B," Quinn called over her shoulder. The blonde happily walked over. Quinn turned to her, "Rachel's lips takes like strawberries."

Brittany grinned and didn't hesitate to kiss Rachel who slowly eased into it. Quinn wasn't threatened by Brittany. She just needed Rachel's lips to be busy until she got back, just in case a glee club going football player happened to walk by. Plus, Rachel was one of the few names on the list of people Brittany' hadn't made out with and a perfect record was important to Brittany.

"Santana!" Quinn called, "Chill out." She pulled Santana off of a poor freshmen who made the mistake of looking at her wrong.

Just as Santana was calming down, the freshman hit Santana in the back of the head. The Cheerio tumbled to the ground, having been caught off balance. Brittany saw this because she and Rachel both needed to breathe. The blonde shrieked, "San!" and ran over to her.

"She's fine," Quinn assured her, seeing that Santana was just stunned, "Take her to my room okay?"

Brittany nodded and helped Santana to her feet.

Quinn promptly and roughly escorted (threw) the girl out. She didn't ever know who it was but when school came on Monday she'll wish she'd never come to the party.

She ran a hand through her blonde hair as she walked back inside. Hosting a party was definitely not as fun as just showing up. She had to make sure everyone was okay and that nothing got broken.

Puck walking up to her caught her attention. He grinned and put his hands in his pockets. He bent over and whispered to her, "Rachel went to the pool. I'll keep Finn busy."

"Thanks," Quinn grinned. She walked outside and found Rachel standing by the pool, staring down into the water. She moved to sit on a lounge chair, letting Rachel have her moment. She put her feet up and leaned back. That vodka was just starting to hit her.

Rachel finally noticed her. She smiled and walked over. When she got to Quinn's chair, she put one knee on either side of Quinn's hips and dress vague patterns across Quinn's shirt covered stomach.

"Did you have fun with Brittany?" Quinn rested her hands on Rachel's thighs, slowly rubbing the skin under her thumbs.

"Mhmm," Rachel ran a single finger in a small circle, "She's a good kisser."

Quinn ran her hands a little higher on her legs, "Better than me?"

"I don't remember," Rachel let out a wide grin and giggled, "It's been too long since you kissed me."

"Way too long," Quinn nodded in agreement.

Rachel paused, "I-I think…" She laughed and shook her head, "I can't really think."

"Do you need to lay down?" the blonde asked, concerned.

"No…" Rachel leaned over and took Quinn's face in her hands, her hair tickling Quinn's shoulders, "Well maybe in a few minutes." She dropped her head the rest of the way and brushed her lips against Quinn's teasingly before she deepened the kiss, her tongue dancing along Quinn's bottom lip.

Quinn tangled her hands in Rachel's hair, her back involuntarily arching into Rachel's body.

"Mmm…Rachel…" Quinn mumbled a few minutes later. "You've had a lot to drink."

"I'm not drunk," Rachel ignored Quinn's attempt to interrupt their lips and continued to kiss her.

Quinn turned her head away from Rachel's lips and added, "I know you don't think you are-"

Rachel smiled and ran her tongue up Quinn's neck, ending with a nip her jaw. Quinn couldn't stop a moan. The brunette kissed Quinn's neck again adding, "I'm really not." She paused to looked at Quinn.

The blonde still had a worried expression on her face. Rachel sighed, "Fine." She kissed Quinn on the lips chastely, "But when can we finish?"

"Finish?"

"Yeah," Rachel smirked, "I'm not done here."

Quinn ran her fingers through Rachel's hair, "In a little while."

Rachel nodded in understanding. She had to kiss Quinn one last time though. She was being so sweet about this. She didn't want Rachel to be drunk and regret anything she did like Quinn had. Although Rachel was sure that she wasn't drunk enough to do something she'd regret, she decided to go along with what Quinn wanted because as sure as she was, she wanted Quinn to be sure.

"Cannonball!" ripped their eyes away from each other. Puck had run outside in his boxers and jumped into the pool. When he surfaced he looked at the girls with a wink before Finn ran out in his boxers.

It had turn into an underwear pool party and pretty much everyone that was on some sort of athletic team had stripped down and jumped in.

Quinn shook her head at Puck's crooked finger. He was in the middle of the pool trying to get her to jump in. Stripping down and jumping in, in front of Rachel or Santana was one thing. Doing it in front of half of the school was a completely different thing.

Rachel appeared next to her and bumped Quinn's shoulders, "I'll do it if you do it."

"I-" Quinn's eyes fell to the pavement under their feet, "I'm not…"

"You are," Rachel smiled reassuringly. She gathered the hem of her shirt in her hand and pulled it up over her head.

"Woo Berry!" Puck called, "Take it off!"

Rachel rolled her eyes at him and he let out a playful smile before turning his attention to a couple of Cheerios that were calling him over.

"I'll take my bra off if you don't take your shirt off," Rachel told Quinn.

The blonde's eyes grew wide and started darting around looking at all the people around them, "What?"

Rachel reached behind herself and ran her finger over the hooks in her bra.

"Fine," Quinn shucked off her shirt and immediately heard wolf whistles from almost everywhere. Rachel smiled at her and shimmied out of her skirt. Blue lacy hipsters appeared to match her bra. Quinn kicked off her pants.

Rachel smiled at her matching purple bra and panties. "Nice color."

"I know right," Quinn smiled.

After they jumped in, they parted ways. Rachel swam over to Tina, Mike, and another football player, hanging out by the waterfall.

"I thought you were going to keep Finn busy," Quinn tapped Puck on his shoulder.

He smirked and turned around, "I tried."

"Thanks away," Quinn answered.

"Everything cool in Rachel-Quinn land?" he asked.

She nodded, "Everything's perfect."

"Good," Puck said, "Now I need you to tell this girl over her how awesome I am in bed. I can't find Santana anywhere."

Quinn glanced up at her bedroom window and knew that Santana was in there with Brittany, probably defiling her bed. She shuttered and turned back to Puck. She figured she owed him at least this much so she humored him.

People started trickling out around two a.m. and by four everyone except Rachel and Puck were gone. She assumed Brittany and Santana were still in her room.

Rachel went into Quinn's room to check on Brittany and Santana. She came back downstairs a few minutes later with a soft smile on her face. Quinn and Puck were sitting on the couch both about to fall asleep.

"They're asleep," Rachel told them and fell on the armchair. "You know Santana's kinda sweet looking when she's asleep."

Puck nodded in agreement.

Rachel looked to Quinn who was putting plastic cups into a big trash bag, "C'mon we can do that in the morning."

Quinn looked up and caught Rachel's eyes. A slow smile spread across her face. She walked over to Rachel and took her hand leading her up the stairs. She went to what used to be her sister's room, now the guest room, and closed the door. She didn't bother turning on the lights as she pulled Rachel to the bed and crawled in after Rachel did.

Quinn laid on her back and turned her head to look at Rachel, "Are you tired?"

"No," Rachel carefully maneuvered herself so that she was hovering over Quinn. She lowered herself down so that her lips were almost touching Quinn's, "Do you still think I'm drunk?"

The blonde breathlessly shook her head. She could seem to form words so she pulled Rachel's head down, sending their lips crashing together.

Rachel moved her lips down Quinn's neck and across the blonde's collarbone. She easily pushed Quinn's shirt up so that it was barely covered the bottom of her bra. Rachel slowly ran both of her hands up Quinn's stomach and kissed Quinn deeply. She pulled away to hold Quinn's eyes. She let out a tender smile and bent down to whisper into Quinn's ear, her lips brushing the side of Quinn's face, "You're so beautiful."

Quinn gasped at the surge of heat that swirled around her body. She pulled Rachel back down for a very heated kiss before Rachel moved down Quinn's body. Rachel slowly kissed and nipped at every inch of Quinn's stomach. At first Quinn was a little self-conscious, but the way Rachel was making her feel completely eliminated those negative thoughts from her mind, and pretty much everyone other thought she had.

She moaned, "Rach." The brunette slowly looked up at Quinn and saw the desire all over her face. She smiled and moved back up to Quinn's lips, letting her tongue battle with Quinn before biting down on the blonde's lip.

"Are you sure?" Quinn asked as Rachel sat up to pull her shirt off. Quinn couldn't help, but run her hands up and down Rachel's sides before her hands met in the middle of Rachel's bra, which had a convenient hook in the front.

Rachel bit her lip and studied Quinn's face. She nodded. She knew she wanted this more than she wanted anything, but she wanted to make sure Quinn wanted it too, "Are you sure?"

The blonde smiled at Rachel's concern. She sat up and drew Rachel into another kiss. She paused enough to add, "So sure."

The next sound the filled the room was Rachel's gasp when Quinn flicked her wrist, unhooking Rachel's bra.


	15. Chapter 15

When Quinn woke up the next morning, she could smell something amazing. Her stomach rumbled. She was hungry. She started to open her eyes, but the sunlight was a little much to fast. She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in her pillow.

"Be careful," Rachel mumbled and carefully peeked out from under her shelter of a blanket, squinting in the light, "The sun is angry."

Quinn chuckled and ducked under the blankets. Rachel put her head back under the blanket and buried her face in Quinn's neck, "It's too bright."

"I know," the blonde stroked her hair and kissed the side of Rachel's head, "We need to eat and drink some water and it'll get better."

"What smells good?" Rachel asked not attempting to leave their temporary shelter.

"The reason why I let Puck stay last night," Quinn smiled. She pushed some of Rachel's hair away from her face and let her hand trail down Rachel's arm.

The shorter girl pulled away and kissed Quinn on the lips in a sweet display of affection. She took a deep breath inhaling Quinn before sinking back down into her.

"Are you okay?" Quinn tentatively asked her hand still running up and down Rachel's arm, "With what happened last night?"

Rachel nodded into Quinn's neck. She kissed the curve of Quinn's neck before asking, "Are you?"

"Definitely," Quinn smiled and closed her eyes. She could remember every noise, touch, and sensation like it was happening to her at that second. When her eyes snapped open, she knew she'd need to save that memory, but now was not the time to relive it.

When they finally drug themselves downstairs, they found Santana laying on the couch with Brittany behind her, the blonde's arm draped over Santana's middle. Santana groaned, "When is the food going to be ready?"

Puck's voice called from the kitchen, "Ten minutes."

Santana rolled onto her back and put her arm around Brittany, "How's your head?" Her fingers tenderly massaged the blonde's scalp.

"It's okay," Brittany let out a content sigh, resting her head on Santana's shoulder.

"Hey it's the closet cases," Santana quipped half-heartedly when she saw Quinn and Rachel.

"Good morning, Santana," Rachel said ignoring the insult and cutting off Quinn before she could quip back. "Good morning, Brittany."

"Last night was epic," Puck walked out of the kitchen with a stack of plates and a plate stacked high with pancakes. He set the food down on the coffee table and returned to the kitchen. When he came back had a stack of cups, a carton of orange juice, syrup and forks, "Dig in ladies."

"What's all this?" Rachel looked at Puck who sat on the couch next to Brittany.

"Noah Puckerman's morning after breakfast," Santana smirked and grabbed a couple of pancakes, "He does it after every party."

Quinn put some pancakes on a plate and handed them to Rachel. With a small smile she whispered, "Don't worry, they're vegan."

Rachel smiled at Quinn and they both sat on the floor in front of the coffee table.

Quinn turned on the TV and handed the remote to Brittany who managed to find a rerun of the Powerpuff Girls. They all ate in silence watching the TV and eating. After everyone finished Rachel and Puck picked up the empty plates and took them to the kitchen.

"So," Puck leaned back on the count as Rachel started loading the dishwasher. "How'd it go last night?"

Rachel couldn't stop a smile. She hoped it was too telling of a smile. She kept her face turned away from him as she answered, "It went well."

"How well?" he asked, starting to put up the ingredients he used to make breakfast.

Rachel picked up the pancake mix before Puck could reach it and saw that it was in fact her favorite brand of vegan pancake mix. She smiled dreamily and handed it over to Puck. "It went well," she repeated.

Puck finally saw the look on Rachel's face and grinned, "You finally hooked up didn't you? You can thank me now."

Rachel shook her head, but realized that yes he had had something to do with it, although his intentions were less than pure. She crossed the kitchen and playfully hugged him, "Thank you Noah."

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her.

"Well damn," Santana tilted her head to the side at the two, "I never thought you two would get back together."

"We're not," Rachel and Puck said at the same time.

She stepped out of his arms, "I was just thanking him for breakfast."

"I'd like to see what you do for someone that makes you dinner," Santana added, going to the refrigerator and getting out the orange juice to refill the two glasses she walked in with.

"Don't be jealous babe," Puck opened his arms, "There's plenty of the Puckasaurus to go around."

"If you'd like to keep your Puckasaurus you won't touch me," Santana stated.

Santana was about to reply when Brittany and Quinn walked in. "What's going on?" Quinn asked.

"Berry and Puckerman were practically groping each other when I came in," Santana answered.

Rachel rolled her eyes, "If you didn't know what that was, I suggest that you need have more hugs Santana."

Without hesitation, Brittany threw her arms around Santana and squeezed her. Santana giggled and held Brittany close to her.

"Why were you hugging Puck?" Quinn asked, trying to keep the jealousy out of her voice. She slid up next to Rachel and leaned back on the counter.

"I was thanking him for _breakfast_," Rachel let out a smirk.

Puck held out his arms to Quinn, "C'mon Q. How about a hug?"

Quinn knew what Rachel was talking about and rolled her eyes, but she shrugged and stepped into Puck's arms. She whispered to him, "Just to be clear, I don't owe you shit. You almost ruined everything."

He chuckled when she stepped out of the hug and stood next to Rachel.

"How's your head S?" Quinn asked, "I totally forgot about it."

"It's fine," Santana answered as Brittany gently ran her hand over the place where the Freshman had blindsided her, "But that girl is dead when we get back to school."

"Her house was already TP-ed and her car was already plastic wrapped," Puck announced.

Quinn nodded, "And on Monday she will be slushied the second she walks into the school."

"Thanks guys," Santana had to admit that it was nice that Puck and Quinn were standing up for her.

Puck ran a hand over his mowhawk. "So what are you girls doing today?"

Brittany looked to Santana who shrugged, "Probably hit up the pool. I need to soak up as much sun as possible fore it gets too cold."

Quinn and Rachel silently conferred. The shorter girl sighed, remembering something rather unpleasant she need to do, but if Quinn wanted to hang out today she could put off breaking up with Finn until Monday.

"Lounging around by the pool sounds good," Quinn used her foot to close the dishwasher, "You guys can hang out here if you want."

Puck nodded. That sounded good to him. Maybe Quinn and Rachel would make out in the pool.


	16. Chapter 16

"What are we going to watch when we're done with the show?" Quinn mused as she and Rachel lounged on Rachel's bed Sunday night. They were of course watching Bewitched.

Rachel lulled her back to the other side to look at Quinn. Her head was in the blonde's lap. "I already planned for that." She got off of the bed and went to her closet. She came back with a pink and red striped Victoria's secret bag.

"You dirty girl," Quinn giggled.

Rachel put the back in Quinn's lap and put her hands on her hips, "It's not that. I just didn't get a chance to wrap it."

Quinn peered into the bag and pulled out the first four seasons of The Office. Quinn grinned and tackled Rachel onto the bed, "You're for real my favorite person ever."

"I know," Rachel teased but held Quinn against her.

The blonde quickly kissed Rachel before sliding off of the bed and putting her new present right next to Rachel's Bewitched cases.

Quinn crawled back onto the bed and wrapped her arms around Rachel from behind, softly kissing the back of her neck.

"Mmm…my dads are home," Rachel mumbled, her eyes closed. It was a half-hearted effort. If Quinn prodded anymore, she would just try to be as quiet as possible.

Rachel's phone's Broadway classic ring sang through the room. Quinn let Rachel loose and the brunette dug through the bag she had just brought back from Quinn's house. When she saw who it was she didn't think twice about answering the phone, "Why hello Mr. Hudson."

Quinn cringed at the name. Officially Rachel and Finn were still going out, but unofficially Rachel checked out a long time ago. And Quinn officially wanted Finn out of the picture. She felt bad. She cheated on him last year and now she was helping his current girlfriend cheat on him. The sooner this ended the better.

"Yeah," Rachel giggled at something Finn said. She glanced at Quinn who was frowning. That made her smile softly and bite her lips adoringly. She crawled onto the bed, still holding the phone to her ear and made a move to kiss Quinn. The blonde wasn't having it and turned her cheek. Rachel sat back on her knees and looked Quinn over with a disapproving eye.

"That sounds like a good idea," Rachel replied patiently. She slowly ran her fingertips up and down, over Quinn's knees and steadily moved higher. Quinn rolled onto her side, trying to ignore Rachel's advances. It was wrong. Especially since she was on the phone with Finn.

"Okay Finn," Rachel nodded, looking at her nails obviously concentrating on the conversation she was having and not that fact that Quinn had brushed her off twice. "Bye." She put her phone on the night stand and scooted close to Quinn, staying on her knees. The side of her leg was pressed against Quinn's back. The blonde leaned into her and didn't his her hand away as Rachel's fingers danced on top of the material covering Quinn's stomach. "What's wrong beautiful?"

Quinn chuckled to herself and shook her head. Rachel had been trying out all kinds of pet names since Brittany, Santana, and Puck left Quinn's house earlier in the afternoon. Rachel seemed to like 'beautiful' but Quinn wasn't so sure. But she figured anything was better than 'duckie' or 'pookie', which were quickly discarded by both girls almost the second they left Rachel's lips.

"What are you going to do about Finn?" Quinn asked quietly.

Rachel stroked Quinn's hair, "I'm going to break up with him tomorrow. Probably after glee so he has some cool down time before we have to see each other again."

The blonde nodded, "Good." She was happy that Rachel had put thought into it already.

"Can I get a kiss now?" Rachel asked playfully.

Quinn had an awful idea and blurted it out before she could stop herself, "I don't think we should do anything until you officially break up with him."

Rachel froze in place, her eyes focused on the wall behind Quinn. She slowly started to nod, "Okay. I understand why you feel that way." Rachel smiled and took Quinn's slender hand. "You're very sweet for thinking of him." She brought Quinn's hand to her lips and kissed her knuckles.

"You're making it really hard to not jump you right now," Quinn smirked and rolled onto her back.

Rachel laughed. She laid down and snuggled into Quinn. The blonde wrapped her arms around Rachel, draping her leg over Rachel's. Maybe she would make out with Rachel or do anything beyond kissing, but cuddling was something they did when they were just friends so it was okay.

They stayed like that until Quinn's mom called her to come home. Instead of a goodnight kiss like Rachel wanted, and pouted for, Quinn settled on a hug with a whisper, "I'll make it up to you. I promise."

"I'm going to hold you to that," Rachel smiled and kissed Quinn's cheek.

"Maybe we could sit with your friends at lunch today." Rachel offered as she and Finn walked down the emptying hallway.

"The football players and the Cheerios?" he asked, his hands in the pockets of his puffy vest.

"Yeah. I've been thinking about it and it's wrong for me to keep you from them. I'll be fine. I mean Tina sits with them and I can talk to her." Of course she knew the popular table was where Quinn sat. Plus she was trying to transition him back into his realm so he'd had some kind of base for when she broke it off after glee.

Finn smiled and nodded, "Awesome."

When Finn presented Rachel at the popular table, there were a few sneers but no verbal objections. Santana even seemed receptive, although Rachel was convinced had ulterior motives. Santana had been tolerant of her at the after party breakfast and pool lounging. Rachel knew that Santana's tolerance only lasted so long.

Quinn wasn't at the table yet so Rachel turned to Tina who was sitting next to her. They talked about the one thing they had in common: music.

When Quinn finally appeared, she took her place next to Santana and across from Rachel. "I had the best idea for a Cheerio routine." She immediately told Santana. It was obvious Santana wasn't really interest until Quinn added, "I'll definitely showcase B. Maybe you could sing too." Lasers and fog machines and strobe light were tossed around.

Rachel had to admit it seemed like it would be impressive if they could get their hands on a whole lot of lasers.

"I forgot my math book," Quinn mentioned nonchalantly to the table, "I guess I'll have to leave early to get it." Her eyes flickered to Rachel to make sure that Rachel knew what she was hinting at.

A knowing look flashed across Rachel's eyes, but she made no mood to acknowledge that Quinn had said anything.

Quinn engaged Brittany in a lengthy conversation about the wardrobe of Ke$ha and about the many alleged adventures of Brittany's cat. When she looked at the table she saw that Rachel had disappeared. Finn had gone as well, but Quinn easily spotted him with Puck. They were standing in the lunch line again, getting some ice cream.

"Shit," Quinn mumbled pretended to be pissed off, "I'll see you guys in glee." She waved to Brittany, Santana, and Tina before trudging off into the empty hallways.

Quinn spotted Rachel leaning on the locker next to Quinn's just, which was already open. "You know my combination?"

"It wasn't hard to guess," Rachel wiggled her eyebrows with an elated smile, "You're birthday is a really bad combination.

"You know my birthday?" Quinn asked grabbing her math book and pulling it out, only to find a rose sticking out of the top. She couldn't help but smile and want to drag Rachel to the nearest rest room, empty classroom, or janitor's closet.

"Of course I do," Rachel smirked, "I do birthdays big. You are hereby warned."

Quinn thought for a moment, "Well thank you for the two months to prepare."

"Two months," a panicked look coated Rachel's face, "That's all I have?" She looked at her phone for the date and her eyes grew wide. She turned and started to run off, "Quinn I have to-"

Quinn grabbed Rachel's arm, "You have plenty of time. I trust that you could throw together something amazing at the last minute."

"It is that last minute!" Rachel gasped. "I have to go book the venue and order the - " Before she could get any farther, Quinn grabbed Rachel by the sweater and pulled her, sending their lips crashing together. It was a quick kiss, but still left Rachel breathless.

"Chill," Quinn told Rachel just short of sternly. She ran her fingers through Rachel's hair. "Two months is a long time. You don't even know that you'll still like me then."

Rachel narrowed her eyes, studying Quinn's face. Finally her eyes traces Quinn's uniform from Quinn's ponytail down the WMHS across her chest and the shirt pleated skirt, eventually dropping at her shoes. Her voice got the insecure quiet it did when Rachel was scared to know the answer to the question she was going to ask, "You don't think we'll make it that long?"

The blonde furrowed her eyebrows, "I didn't say that. I said I don't you if _you'll_ like _me_. As annoying as you can be sometimes, I like it. I like you Rach. And I care about you a lot." The bell ran and people started flooding the hallway. Quinn closed her locker and let out a tiny, knowing smile, "I'm not promising anything because I don't know what's going to happen between now and then, but…" she paused and looked around. No one was giving them a second look. She leaned forward and whispered, "I think I love you."

Rachel's heart slammed against her chest before stopping completely. All the air was sucked out of her lungs and she was sure she would fall over if someone bumped into her. She licked her lips and opened her mouth to reply, but Quinn shook her head. She scanned the hallway and saw a group of Cheerios gathering at one end. She jerked her head toward the nearest girl's bathroom.

They both walked inside and Quinn looked in all the stalls to make sure no one was there. She leaned back on the counter and pulled Rachel to her by her hips. Once their bodies were sufficiently close enough, Quinn took a deep breath. "I'm not really good at all this relationship stuff. I mean my track records is…atrocious. But with you there's this…pull. I can't fight it. I've already proven that. And I really do think I love you, but I…I'm not sure I know what really loving someone really feels like. I don't want to lie to you, but I don't want you to think I don't feel anything. Understand?"

Rachel slowly nodded. She put her hands on Quinn's forearms and slid them up her arms until they met behind Quinn's neck, "I understand."

Quinn rested her forehead on Rachel's, "I'm not saying that I think you love me," she quickly added, "And I'm not saying that I think you don't, but people have told me that before and it didn't exactly end well. So will you do something for me?"

The brunette was hesitant to nod, but did due to the pleading in the hazel eyes.

"Don't tell me you love me," Quinn stated, "If you feel like you feel something, just wait to say it….until my birthday, okay? And then if you're sure, you can tell me."

Rachel thought it over. It wasn't a bad idea. As much as she liked to express herself, she knew Quinn have been hurt, devastatingly so, by people who told her that they had loved her. Plus, Rachel had a tendency to get caught up in the idea of a whirlwind romance and would always get two steps ahead of herself and whoever she was with.

She nodded, "Okay Quinn. It sounds fair enough."

The blonde smiled and hugged Rachel to her body relishing in the brunette's obvious care for her. She kissed Rachel's cheek as she pulled away, "We should probably get to class."

Rachel agreed and stepped away.

They both looked at themselves in the mirror. Rachel ran her fingers through her hair and offhandedly asked, "Where'd you get that idea for that cheer routine? It sounds amazing."

Quinn smirked, "I fell asleep in bio and had a dirty dream that had lasers and strobe lights."

"A dirty dream about who?" Rachel put her hands on her hips.

Quinn didn't answer. She just coyly smirked and exited the bathroom.


	17. Chapter 17

Rachel slowed down as she neared the music room. She hoped that if she showed up late enough, there wouldn't be any seats by Finn. Of course she couldn't really think of anyone who would want to sit next to him on purpose. She shuffled her feet through the empty hallway. She didn't want to break up with him. Well she did, but she didn't want to have to do it. She wished it would just…happen so she wouldn't have to hurt him. He had been a decent boyfriend, but what she had with Quinn was…indescribable.

When she finally got to the music room, she found that she was just late enough. Everyone else was already there, seated in various places. There were chairs open all around the room. Santana and Brittany were off in their own corner, Santana's legs spread out over Brittany. Quinn was isolated on the second row up with no one behind her, beside her or in front of her, apparently drawing on a notepad. Mercedes was seated one chair away from Quinn and Artie was in front of the empty chair on the ground. Mike and Tina were of course together and Finn and Puck were both staring off into space on the opposite side of the room. Rachel quietly slipped in and sat next to Artie in the chair directly in front of Quinn.

Her back tingled because she could feel Quinn's eyes on her, but it was the good kind of tingle. She smiled to herself and turned to Artie to compliment how well his suspenders went with his shoes.

Finn looked a little confused. Rachel usually sat next to him, but she was sitting three chairs away between Artie and the wall. He shrugged and leaned back in his chair. Maybe she didn't see him.

Rachel saw that the projector was set up in the room as per her request so she took her laptop out of her bag and happily walked over to the projector to plug in her computer.

"This isn't another one of your pervy music videos is it?" Santana asked with a huff.

"No," Rachel replied, not even Santana could spoil her good mood. She turned to the group after her computer was hooked up, "As promised during our last meeting, I have complied a list of songs that we could sing for Sectionals this year. I have taken into account everyone's request as well as tempo, vocal range, and the ability movement while singing. Everyone has their own page of songs that I think would be suitable for them." She opened the slide show and turned off the lights. She picked up a remote for the PowerPoint and sat back down in her seat.

"I did these in alphabetical order by last name as to show no favoritism," Rachel explained. The first slide said "Sectionals Set List by Rachel Berry." There were gold stars falling all over the page.

She clicked the button and a picture of Artie appeared next to a list of songs. Rachel started to explain why she picked the songs, but she felt soft, delicate fingers trail up and down her neck. Chills ran through her body and she clenched her jaw. Quinn's fingers trailed up into her hair and then back down. Quinn just touching her neck shouldn't be so erotic, but Rachel was definitely turned on.

"Um," Rachel swallowed, "Next is mine." She accidentally mashed the button again completely skipping her slide because Quinn ran her nails slowly down Rachel's neck causing her whole body to tense. "This is Mike's." There wasn't much on it except for some outdated rap songs. So she skipped it, "Tina."

Rachel tried to shake off Quinn's fingers because this was for Sectionals and it was important. However she heard Quinn quietly giggle and continued what she was doing.

"As you can see Quinn's songs are…" She trained off as Quinn scratched her neck a little harder causing Rachel who silently gasp and her stomach to flip twice. Rachel shot to her feet and regained her composure before continuing, speeding through the rest of the slides. "Then Finn's songs are pretty limited to 80s classic rock. Mercedes' can sing pretty much any song with what we in showbiz call power vocals for example Etta James, Beyonce, Dionne Warwick, and I think that some Madonna songs could use the Mercedes touch." She shot a smile over to Mercedes who reciprocated.

Rachel finally managed to have complete control over herself and in order to keep it that way she kept her eyes off of Quinn. Rachel went to the next slide, "Santana has a very soulful voice which I believe is perfect for Amy Winehouse and Alicia Keys songs as well as certain Mariah songs and a wide range of R&B songs from the 90s."

Rachel got through Brittany (Ke$ha, Britney Spears, and Mandy Moore) and Puck's songs (John Mayer and pretty much anything you hear in a coffee shop near a college campus) before going through songs for the whole group to sing together. She finally let her eyes land on Quinn who was back to drawing. She was about to turn back to the group when Quinn held up her drawing. In all capital letters, Quinn had written "SO SEXY IN THAT SKIRT"

Rachel gulped. Her eyes met Quinn's and the blonde let out a cocky smirk. She knew she had Rachel. She'd been thinking about things she could do to Rachel without even having to take the short skirt off since lunch and her mom wasn't going to be home until eight because she of some kind of meeting. Neighborhood Watch, or Home Owners Association, or Alcoholics Anonymous…Quinn wasn't really listening. All she heard was, "I'll be home late because…"

Rachel finally shook out of her daze and found everyone staring at her, waiting for her to move. Everyone except Santana who was donning a wicked smile. When Rachel froze, her eyes went straight to Quinn and although she couldn't read the note, she knew it was dirty or at least indicating something dirty. She watched again as Quinn watched Rachel until the short girl looked at her and when she did Rachel blushed, ducking her head and gathering her things silently while the other oblivious glee kids went about trying to pick a couple songs.

She resisted the urge to call Quinn out on it in the middle of everyone. Part of her didn't want to yank Quinn into the open about her relationship, and part of her wanted to wait until a more opportune time to call her on it. Brittany distracted her from her caring/conniving toward Quinn when she took Santana's hand and used her own pale finger to trace the lines of the heart on her hand that Brittany had drawn earlier.

Rachel put her things in her backpack and hoisted it up onto her shoulders. Quinn wanted her to get to her car as soon as possible and Rachel had to admit, she was eager to get there.

"Hey Rachel," Finn called as she started walking out.

Rachel internally cursed. She'd forgotten about Finn. She sighed, knowing that she had to, but not really wanting to. She took a deep breath and turned around. She put on a smile that she hoped was friendly, but not too happy. She didn't want him to think she'd been dying to do this all day and was a ecstatic to finally do it. "Oh Finn…I wanted to talk to you."

"Yeah?" Finn asked, "Okay, um do you want to stay here?"

"How about we go to the theatre?" Rachel suggested, still feeling the eyes of the glee club on her.

Finn nodded and put his hands in his pockets when she walked off without taking his hand. She glanced back at Quinn who gave a sweet, approving, and encouraging smile. Quinn tapped her shoulder own. It took Rachel a minute to realized that she was indicating Rachel's backpack. The brunette slid it off and placed it next to the door before she walked out.

Once on the stage, Rachel found it oddly appropriate that there were only two lights shining straight down. She automatically stepped into the beam and folded her hands in front of her.

"Rachel what's wrong?"

"I…" Rachel swallowed hard, "I think that this is it for us."

"Wha-What?" Finn asked, confused, "We're- Why?"

Rachel took a deep breath, "It's not you. I just need to-" She was going to lie and tell him to she needed to focus on her career, but if she and Quinn ever did make their relationship public, Finn would know she lied. "I have feelings for someone else. Really, really strong feelings."

"Who?" Finn asked. The hurt rushed to his face and he clenched his jaw, "Is it Puck?"

Rachel shook her head, "It's definitely not him."

Then a look of recognition crossed his face. His eyes grew hard and Rachel could tell all the muscles in his body were clenching. "It's Quinn."

"I-She's not…" Rachel started, but she knew she couldn't deny it. She was a horrible liar.

Finn turned on his heel and ran out of the theatre. Rachel frowned. That did not go well and now she had to tell Quinn that Finn knew too. She sighed heavily and made her way outside.

"What the hell!" was what Rachel heard the second she stepped outside. She looked up to see Finn and Quinn standing in the middle of the parking lot, both glaring hard at each other.

"You did this," Finn brought his hands to his head and balled his fists on top of his head. "You're using her."

"What the fuck are you talking about Hudson?" Quinn demanded, her hands on her hips and a fire in her eyes.

"You just going to hurt her," he started to turn around, but then turned back about, "You're a cheater! You a fucking cheater!"

"Hey asshat!" Santana yelled from across the parking lot where Rachel didn't realize she and Brittany were standing. Both Cheerios sprinted over and Santana stood next to Quinn, her shoulder against the blonde's with Brittany standing slightly behind her. "You need to watch the way you talk to my homegirl."

"Your homegirl?" Finn asked Santana, "Do you even hear yourself talk? Lima Heights Adjacent is not the hood! It's the nicest neighborhood in town. You try to act all tough because you're a fucking scared little slut who will open her legs to whatever guy who wants to- Umph!" Finn doubled over on the ground and grabbed his stomach.

Quinn looked at Santana who looked back at her. Then they all looked at Brittany who was shaking her hand out and hopping up and down. When she saw everyone look at her, she put her hand behind her back and asked as innocently as possible, rocking back to her heels and then up to her toes, "Who hit him?"

Santana looked down at Finn who was starting to get up. Then she looked back at Brittany. She let out a calming sigh and wrapped her arms around Brittany's neck. She felt the sting of tears behind her eyes. When Brittany placed her hands on the small of her back, she whispered, "Do you think I'm a slut?"

"Of course not," Brittany whispered back.

Santana nodded. That assurance was enough to get her composed. She took a step back and picked up Brittany's left hand. It was already starting to bruise along her knuckles and her wrist. She let out a weak smile, "I guess if you're going to be defending me I should teach you how to punch correctly."

Brittany nodded with a tentative smile. She was about to ask Santana if she was okay, but she knew the answer. She took Santana's hand with her non-injured hand and pulled her toward Santana's car. The brunette paused, looking back at Quinn. When Quinn waved her off, Santana kept walked with Brittany, disappearing in the menagerie of cars.

"Are you okay?" Rachel quietly asked with her arms crossed tightly in front of her.

Quinn and Finn both looked at her, wondering which one she was talking too. When Rachel's dark eyes held Quinn's the blonde nodded. "I'm fine."

Rachel took a few purposeful steps over to them. She looked down at Finn who had finally gotten to his feet. "I'd appreciate it Finn is you'd stop verbally assaulting Quinn. This is not her fault. This is no one's fault. It's one of the things that just happens." She tossed an unsure glance over her shoulder at Quinn before continuing, her eyes trained on Finn, "As far as your cheating accusations, I implicitly trust Quinn. With everything."

Finn looked like he was about to cry. He looked down at Rachel, "Why can't you give us one more try?"

"Finn," she placed her hand on his chest, "It's not about us anymore."

He covered her hand with his, "Think about it. When you two walk into school holding hands, you'll be pushed even farther into the social basement. You'll both be slushied and – and Quinn will be kicked off the Cheerios."

"I will not," Quinn defiantly planted her feet and narrowed her eyes at him. She pointed at him, "Just because you have a problem with us doesn't mean that the rest of the school will." She took Rachel's hand and turned around, stalking off toward her car.

"Asshole," Quinn muttered to herself as she slammed her car door shut, "Who does he think he is?"

"Quinn," Rachel gently put her hand on Quinn's forearm, "He's just lashing out. He's upset."

"He doesn't have the right to yell at me."

"I agree."

"He didn't have to yell at Santana for sticking up for me."

"I know."

Quinn let out a smile when she realized that Brittany had brought Finn to his knees with one hit. "Do you mind if we go check on Brittany?"

"Of course not," Rachel smiled softly. She stopped Quinn's hand before it moved to the gearshift. "Quinn?"

The blonde looked at her and asked, "Yeah?"

Rachel brushed her lips against Quinn's in a light, brief kiss. "I'm sorry it happened like that. I tried to be as tactful as possible."

"I'm sure you were. He just flipped out. It's not your fault," Quinn took Rachel's hand and threaded their fingers together and shifted the car into gear with their joint hands.

Brittany opened the front door of Santana's house with a sad look on her face. She tried to smile when she saw Rachel and Quinn, but was barely able to turn up the corners of her mouth. She had a bag of ice in her right hand and her left hand was turning all different shades of purple and green.

"Your hand," Rachel motioned to it, "Maybe you should see a doctor."

"Santana's dad said it was just sprained and bruised," Brittany explained, weakly, "He went to get a brace for it." She stepped back and let the pair inside.

"What did you tell him when he asked how you did it?" Quinn asked, walking into the living room to find Santana looked at herself in the mirror, frantically wiping the area under her eyes.

"I told him that I fell," Brittany shrugged, "Her dad would have killed Finn if he really knew why."

Quinn nodded. Santana got her temper and her protectiveness from her dad. Finn would probably be more than dead if he ever found out. Or he'd be almost dead and then Santana's dad would revive him only to kill him again.

She turned her attention back to Santana. She sat on the couch next to the other girl and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Santana replied with an annoyed air.

Quinn nodded. She knew Santana was upset about what Finn said. For such a hard exterior, Santana was really soft on the inside. She was easily hurt and usually cared too much. It had been like that since elementary school. Quinn settled for patted Santana on the knee. She looked up to find Rachel examining Brittany's hand.

"Does it hurt?" Rachel asked.

"A lot," Brittany nodded. She looked over at Santana who was watching her. She let out a smile and walked over to Santana, sitting down in her lap. Santana held Brittany in place by some well-placed arms around her waist. "But I'd do it again."

Santana gave Brittany a gentle squeeze and buried her face in the blonde's back. Quinn could hear Santana sniffle again.

"We should go," Quinn whispered to Rachel.

The shorter girl nodded and hugged Brittany before patting Santana's shoulder. Quinn did the same, telling Brittany if they needed anything to call her.

When they got back to Quinn's house, Rachel laid down on the couch and Quinn laid down on front of her. Rachel draped her arm over Quinn's waist and kissed her shoulder. "I'd break my wrist for you."

Quinn chuckled, "I'd break my wrist for you too."

After a few seconds' pause, Rachel added, "I know you're not acting like you're upset about it, but I know you are about what Finn said."

"He's an idiot," Quinn was sort of glad that she wasn't facing Rachel. She felt like the other girl could see that she was actually upset. She didn't want to think of herself as a cheater, but her past didn't look good for her.

"I meant it," Rachel kissed the back of Quinn's neck, "I trust you." She played with the hem of Quinn's shirt. This wasn't about sex for her…not at that moment. She just wanted to feel Quinn's skin; to feel the heat that the other girl generated. She pushed up Quinn's shirt and just rested her hand on the skin of Quinn's hip.

The blonde closed her eyes and swallowed hard. She pushed herself back into Rachel and felt Rachel wrap herself around Quinn, protectively.

She closed her eyes letting herself feel the contentment of being held by Rachel. It didn't take long before the exhaustion from the ordeal in the parking lot overcame them and they both slipped into sleep.


	18. Chapter 18

Rachel slowly drifted back into consciousness. She giggled when Quinn's hair tickled her nose. She moved the blonde hair out of her face and sat up. Quinn was still very much asleep and Rachel very much had to pee so she stealthily climbed over the blonde and made her way to the nearest bathroom.

"Quinn?" Rachel heard Quinn's mom's voice call when she walked out of the bathroom.

She walked back to the living room and found that Quinn was still asleep so she slipped into the kitchen. She let out a bright smile to Quinn's mom, "Hello Ms. Fabray."

"Hello Rachel," Judy replied with a tight smile, "Is Quinn sick?"

Rachel shook her head, "We just had a…an interesting day at school today."

Judy nodded. She got down two glasses and pour some lemonade that she'd been drinking into both of them. She turned to Rachel, "May I speak with you outside?"

Rachel's palms got sweaty, her mouth went dry and her heart started racing all at once. She felt like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar…or down the front of Quinn's pants. She couldn't say no though. She nodded and followed Judy out to the backyard.

Rachel straightened out her shirt and her skirt and wrung her hands all the way outside. She followed Judy to the table in the back corner of the yard and sat down after Judy did. She didn't touch her lemonade. She watched it slowly condensate, the water roll down the side of the glass and gather on the table in a ring.

"You girls seem to be getting along well," Judy broke the silence.

"I like to think so," Rachel tried to smile, but gave up when Judy looked at her. She crossed her legs and folded her hands over her knee and tried desperately not to think that she had seen this woman's daughter naked.

"How is she doing?" Judy asked.

Rachel's effort to try to stop her thoughts of sleeping with Quinn, they multiplied and she was so focused on trying to block them out that she didn't hear Judy ask the question. When she looked over at Judy in the fading sun she saw that the woman was expecting something.

"Pardon me?" Rachel asked, nervously.

"Quinn, how is she doing?"

"Oh," Rachel nodded, "Good. Good. She's doing good."

"I thought she'd be overextending herself with school, cheerleading and glee club," Judy mentioned and sipped her drink.

Rachel shrugged, "I don't know. She seems to be doing well. I mean the semester just started so it's all too early to get behind on things."

"When is your first performance in glee?" Judy asked, surveying the pool with a practiced elegance.

"In about a month," Rachel informed her, "That is if I can't talk Mr. Schue into having another one between now and then."

"You have a stunning voice," Judy stated causing Rachel to relax a little.

She let out a shy smile, "Thank you."

Judy pursed her lips, "Is she dating anyone?"

Suddenly all of Rachel's muscles tensed again. She avoided looking at Judy because she knew the woman's eyes were on her. Rachel took a deep breath, "I suppose that that's something you'd have to ask her."

There was a long pause before Judy spoke again. She added, "Because if there were, I would expect this person to be respectful of Quinn. She's been though a lot in the past few years. And this person would have to be considerate and attentive. Quinn likes to pretend like she hates it, but she loves cheesy romantic gestures."

Rachel chuckled. That was definitely right. Her laugh turned into silence when she realized what Judy was getting at. Her stomach sank. At this point she may have rather to have been caught with her hand in the cookie jar…or down the front of Quinn's pants.

"And of course this person would have to protect her," Judy went on, watching as the sun sank below the top of the fence. "She's a strong girl, but she still needs to know someone will protect her."

"Of course," Rachel nodded firmly. She'd already proven that she'd do anything in her power to protect Quinn and what was important to her, but Judy didn't know that.

"And this person would have to know that Quinn means the world to me and would understand that I have a difficult time with her dating," Judy peered at Rachel who was finally looking back, "But as long as Quinn in happy, I'm happy. I can't lose her again."

Rachel wanted to tell Judy that she wasn't trying to take Quinn away. She wanted to tell her that she'd break her wrist for Quinn or that she'd take a million slushies to keep Quinn untainted or that she'd tell Quinn that she's beautiful as many times as it took for the blonde to believe it and even then she'd keep telling her. She wanted to tell Judy that she loved Quinn more than anything even though mere hours ago she had told Quinn that she wouldn't say it out loud until Quinn's birthday.

Being Rachel she blurted out the thing that was on her mind, "I've been thinking about Quinn's birthday….What do you think about fireworks?"

Quinn yawned as she stretched on the couch. She frowned when the obvious warmth of Rachel was not wrapped around her, but seeing as how it was getting dark outside she was sure that the girl had had to go home. She sat up and walked to the kitchen. The light was on, but there was no one in there. Then she walked back into the living room. Her mom was supposed to be home by then. Then she saw movement out by her pool. Then she saw her mom and Rachel sitting out by the pool.

She stepped out into the backyard and when Rachel and her mom saw her they both grew quiet. She didn't like it. She narrowed her eyes at the two and crossed her arms, "What's going on?"

"Nothing sweetie," her mom smiled, "Rachel and I were just having a little talk. How do you feel?"

"I feel fine," she walked to the table and took a seat next to Rachel. She looked at Rachel because she could usually tell what Rachel was thinking or how she was feeling. There was a hint of discomfort but for the most part Rachel seemed relaxed.

Judy stood up, "I'm going to go inside and make some dinner. I'm sure you girls are hungry."

Neither one spoke as Judy walked into the house and as soon as the door closed they looked at each other. Quinn asked, "What did she say?"

Rachel looked at the pool, "I think that your mom knows about us."

"What?" Quinn asked, slightly panicked.

"She seemed okay with it," Rachel smiled reassuringly, "I mean she was really vague about it, but kept telling me how someone who is dating you should treat you. Then we started planning your birthday party."

Quinn let the information sink in before putting her hands on Rachel's shoulder, slowly massaging, "What did she say about dating me?"

"She said that she wants someone that will respect you and be considerate," Rachel leaned back into Quinn. "And someone who will protect you."

"I don't need anyone to protect me," Quinn quietly said, but the vulnerability in her voice betrayed her.

Rachel put her hand on top of Quinn's hand, "I know you don't need to be protected."

The blonde leaned forward and kissed the curve of her neck, "I'm kinda glad she knows. I don't think I can pull a Brittany/Santana all the time. It has to be exhausting."

They sat in silence for a while until Rachel turned her chair around to face Quinn. She took Quinn's hands and ran her thumbs over Quinn's knuckles, "Quinn? Will you go out with me?"

Quinn chuckled, "I thought that was already a given."

"I just wanted to officially ask," Rachel shrugged, "This is more for a formal date anyway."

Blonde eyebrows rose high on Quinn's forehead, "Like a real date?"

"Yeah," Rachel nodded, "Unless you don't want to. I know that this is new…to both of us, but my dads know all of the…open-minded restaurants in town. Or I could plan something totally intimate and romantic…there could be roses and candles," Rachel gasped, "In the park and there could be fireflies and a checkered blanket with little finger sandwiches, vegan of course, and then…" She trailed off realizing that she was rambling and Quinn was just watching her with a smile on her face. Rachel blushed and looked down, her hair falling into her face, "Sorry. I got carried away."

"It's okay," Quinn leaned forward and softly kissed Rachel, "I was just waiting to see how you were going to trap a bunch of fireflies."

"I'm going to have to work on that I guess," Rachel smiled back.

Quinn leaned forward and paused before her lips touched Rachel, "When is this date?"

The brunette started to lean in for the kiss, but Quinn kept the same distance between them. She smirked and rested her hand on Quinn's knee. She looked up as she though, "Uh, tomorrow night."

"That soon huh?"

"I'm really, really excited."

Quinn let her bottom lip ghost over Rachel's and their noses grazed in the process. She ran her teeth over her bottom lip, "Excited huh?"

Rachel slid her hand a little farther up Quinn's leg, "Yeah. Excited."

The back door sliding open ripped them apart. Rachel pulled back so fast, her chair started to tip backwards. Quinn grabbed onto the chair and tried to stop her from tumbling backwards into the pool, but she fell in after Rachel and the chair.

When they both broke the surface, Judy was laughing so hard that tears were running down her face. Quinn tried her best to glare at her mom and Rachel was trying to best to not look like she was just about to grope Quinn. She wasn't sure what that looked like; she just wanted to look like it.

Quinn chuckled at Rachel's face and swam over to the ladder. Rachel followed her but kept her head down and hoped that her mascara wasn't running.

"Uh girls," Judy gasped, trying to get her breath. She finally took a deep breath and gestured out to the pool, "Someone has to get the chair."

Rachel wasn't listening. She was trying to stop noticing that she could see through Quinn's shirt to her bra and her shorts clung to her, making it so easy to see the posterior that Quinn had perfected.

"Rach will do it," Quinn smugly smiled.

Rachel looked up, "What?"

"You have to get the chair," Quinn announced before playfully shoving Rachel back into the pool.

The short girl surfaced and shot a glare at Quinn. She started swimming to the plastic chair that was floating in the deep end.

"Um, Quinnie?" her mom asked.

Quinn looked at her mom who had a large smile on her face.

"I think Rachel needs help," Judy chuckled and pushed her daughter into the pool.

"Mom!" Quinn squealed.

Judy started laughing again. "Dinner's ready. You can come get it after you dry off and change clothes." The eldest woman walked into the house and closed the door behind her.

Quinn got to Rachel just as she was shoving the chair out of the pool and tumbling onto the concrete walkway. She grabbed Rachel's hand and spun her around. She bit her lip trying to contain and smile.

Rachel pulled away and heaved herself out of the pool.

"Rachel?" Quinn's smile dropped and she watched Rachel walk to the towel cabinet. She pulled out two towels and dropped one on one of the lounge chairs. "Baby?"

Rachel fought off a smile. She loved when Quinn called her baby, or any other term of endearment. She had been momentarily mad at Quinn when she pushed her in and she was going to hold onto it and milk it for all it's worth. Being a great actress, she planted her hands on her hips, "Quinn that wasn't nice."

Quinn got out of the pool and grabbed her towel, "I'm sorry Rach." She was sincerely apologizing. Her eyes were laced with worry.

A smile finally found it's way to Rachel's lips and she let out a breath, "You do have some serious groveling to do."

The blonde's mouth scrunched up to one side. She didn't grovel. Ever. Never ever never. But this was Rachel. Rachel Berry. Rachel Berry with the amazing legs, perfect rack, and an ass that gods were jealous of. And Quinn was now thinking about all three of those she would do anything to touch one or better yet all of them.

"Whatever you want," Quinn smiled sweetly.

Rachel melted. She wanted to forgive Quinn and kiss her right there, but she wouldn't risk getting caught by her mom again and she still thought she could get a lot more from Quinn. "I'll think about it." She turned and walked into the house.


	19. Chapter 19

Brittany sat up with her arm in Quinn's lap as the she drew a duck. Santana's dad had gotten her a pink brace and although it was just a brace everyone wanted to sign it.

When asked what happened, Santana told the story with a few embellishments about how Brittany laid out Hudson. One of the rather brash Cheerios walked right up to Finn and lifted his shirt to verify Santana's story. As soon as the huge bruise was exposed to the whole hallway, everyone looked from Finn to Brittany and back. Finn yanked his shirt down and stalk off.

Mr. Schue walked up to the group. He sighed, "Word in the hallway is that there was another fight between our club members." He looked between Finn and Brittany, "Although the actors in this fight are extremely surprising. I have to say I'm disappointed in you guys. I thought we were all getting along."

"Tell that to Finnessa," Santana interrupted.

Finn just glared at the ground.

"What happened Finn?" Mr. Schue asked, turning to the monstrosity of a boy.

"I got this," Santana gleefully smiled and stood up in front of the group, "Check it." Her weave swayed as she bobbed her head, "We were in the parking lot-"

"Santana, I asked Finn."

"He's gonna lie," Quinn interjected, "He got is ass kicked by the nicest person in school. He's not going to admit to being as big of an ass it takes to piss Brittany off."

"Well let's just see. Brittany can tell her side and we'll all decide if they need to be punished and what that punishment should be." He put his hands on his hips.

Finn sighed, "Rachel broke up with me and I freaked out. I started yelling at Quinn and Santana came over to defend her. I yelled at Santana and Brittany hit me." He turned to Santana, "I'm sorry okay?"

Everyone was surprised mostly the part about Santana defending Quinn, but also about the apology. Mr. Schue looked to Brittany who nodded.

"Hold up," Mercedes looked at the Cheerios and Rachel who were grouped in the corner and Finn who was in front of them, 'Why were you yelling at Quinn?"

Quinn froze. Her marker paused, as she drew the bill of the duck on Brittany's brace.

"Huh?" Finn asked stupidly.

"If Rachel broke up with you what does Quinn have to do with it?" Mercedes continued.

Rachel saw the panic crowing on Quinn's face. Thinking fast, she shot out of her chair. "What I broke up with Finn, I cited Quinn as my inspiration as a strong young woman. Who doesn't need anyone else to be happy. I begrudgingly look up to her."

Quinn sighed, falling forward into her own lap. She needed to do something extra awesome for Rachel, for saving her. She had frozen at the question. She also figured that they should talk about it. She didn't want to have to borrow the Brittany & Santana handbook on how to secretly stay together without breaking apart, but if Rachel wanted follow in their footsteps, Quinn would go along with it and if Rachel wanted to be open about it Quinn would own it. She knew dating a girl even Rachel Berry would result in every guy tripping over their tongues to get at them because high school guys all believe that they're the cure for high school girl's 'experimentation'. Quinn smirked. It could be fun. Girls would be less threatened by her and guys would be more comfortable around her.

And she could start helping Rachel dress. After she'd help her undress of course. And no one would make fun of her clothes or how short she was because no one messes with who Quinn Fabray dates. Except maybe Santana but she could be dating Brad Pitt and Santana would make fun of him so that didn't bother her.

Rachel took her seat with a thankful squeeze of Finn's shoulder. He nodded as she passed. He had been humiliated yesterday and today. He sort of never understood what Rachel went through until that girl pulled up his shirt. Maybe Quinn could help her not be picked on as much. Maybe Quinn's pull with Santana could get the Cheerios to lay off.

Mr. Schue stated, "I think Finn's apology and Brittany's wrist is punishment enough. What do you guys think?"

Everyone agreed.

"Alright, let's break off into pairs. Brittany and Santana, work on your duet," because he knew Santana would make him miserable if he didn't pair her with Brittany. "Quinn and Rachel, auditorium prep" because he wanted Quinn and Rachel to start getting along and Rachel's confession might help that. "Tina and Mercedes, costumes," because it they were friends , "Mike and Finn, dancing" because…self explanatory. "And Puck and Artie, instruments."

"Mr. Schue," Rachel raised her hand, "If I may, I would like to readjust one of the lights on the catwalk. It had been shining right in my eyes all semester."

"Sure Rachel. Take Quinn with you." He nodded and started sorting sheet music.

Rachel smiled and strutted out the door with Quinn on her heels.

The shorter girl led the way up the spiral stairs, her short little skirt flittering up behind her the whole way. Quinn smirked and had to physically restrain her own hand to keep it away from the polka dotted panties underneath.

When they got to the top, Rachel turned around, walking backwards with her hand on the narrow rails on either side of her, "Welcome to the catwalk." She took Quinn's hand, pulling her until their lips crashed together. Quinn's hand immediately began to seek out the polka dotted panties.

"Okay now I have to adjust that light," Rachel pulled away and walked toward the other end of the catwalk.

"Are you serious?" Quinn asked, completely dumbfounded and completely disappointed.

Rachel carefully adjusted the light and then stood up straight, "Yes. This light completely blinds me every time we perform." She moved to Quinn again and paused right before their lips met, "Now where were we?"

Quinn closed the distance between them, her lips meshing against Rachel's. Every time she kisses Rachel it feels like the first time. She gets chills and her body heats up. She smiled against Rachel's mouth.

Rachel felt it and pulled away to look at Quinn, "What?"

"Kissing you is awesome," Quinn confessed and licked her lips.

Rachel blushed, "Well kissing you is pretty awesome too." She rolled onto the balls of her feet, "So can we keep doing it?"

"Yeah," Quinn smirked and leaned back down, shivering the second her lips touched Rachel's.

A throat clearing behind them ripped them apart.

"If you two wanna keep this on the DL then you better stop making out at school," Puck leaned on the door frame of the stairwell.

"What are you doing here?" Quinn asked.

"I came to see if you two were making out," he smirked, "Carry on."

Rachel huffed. "You always ruin everything."

"C'mon," Puck gestured between them, "I just came to watch."

"You're disgusting," Quinn pulled Rachel to her, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl.

"Just one kiss, with tongue and I'll leave you alone."

"Noah Puckerman. I will not-" Rachel stated before Quinn whirled her around and planted a kiss on her lips. Rachel's eyes fluttered closed and she moaned into Quinn's mouth. The blonde slid her tongue along Rachel's bottom lip before slipping it into the brunette's mouth. Their tongues slid together, and Rachel leaned more into Quinn her arms wrapping around the blonde's neck.

Much to Rachel's protest, Quinn pulled away and looked at Puck, "You got your kiss. Leave now."

Puck walked up to them and put his arms around them both, "I love you. Both…so much."

Both of the girls laughed and hit him in the chest. He laughed and pulled away from them, "I would actually come to school everyday if you two would do that a couple times a day in the hallway."

"We'll think about it," Quinn pushed him toward the stairs, "Now leave. We have to fix the lights."

"If you need a hand-"

"Leave!"

"Fine," he put his hands up and started down the stairs. "I'm serious about the hallway though."

Quinn walked back over to Rachel and chuckled, "He's something else."

Rachel didn't laugh though. She looked at up at Quinn, "Do you really want to do it?"

"Do what?" Quinn asked, "Make out in the hallway?"

"No," Rachel rolled her eyes, "But you know be…out. Together. Like holding hands and walking down the hallway."

Quinn took a deep breath and pulled Rachel to her, "Do you?"

"I asked you first," Rachel smiled, resting her head on Quinn's shoulder.

"I think it would be obvious the first time some meathead hit on you and I'd have to put him down," Quinn smirked.

Rachel giggled. She liked that Quinn was protective and slightly jealous. "Well," she went back to being rational, "I see this happening one of two ways. We walk into the school holding hands and one we get slushied or two everyone moves out of the way and there are no slushies."

"Have you forgotten who I am?" Quinn kissed Rachel's forehead, "No one will slushy me. And no one will slushy whoever is holding my hand."

"But Santana," Rachel looked up at Quinn, her eyes questioning, "She's the head Cheerio."

"You told me about how Brittany stopped her from slushying you," Quinn assured her, "But if you don't want to be together at school then that's fine."

"No I do," Rachel answered, "I just…I don't want anything to happen to you because of me."

"You've already done so much for me," Quinn smiled down at the brunette placing a light kiss on her lips, "Let me try this for you. If we get slushied we can appeal to the Queen Bitch herself and even better we'll appeal to her better half and Brittany can talk her into it."

"You think she could do that?"

"Brittany got Santana got dress up for Halloween as a Disney princess last year," Quinn ran her hand up Rachel's arm then back down. "Santana is Brittany's bitch."

"Quinn," Rachel said with a hint of warning.

"You have to admit Santana is whipped," Quinn held Rachel's face in her hands, bringing their lips together.

Rachel broke the kiss and looked into the hazel eyes that were so intent on her, "So tomorrow, we're together?"

Quinn knew what Rachel wanted her to say and how she wanted to say it so as definitively as she could she stated, "Tomorrow, we'll walk into school holding hands and you'll walk me to class and I'll carry your books and we'll be so damn cute everyone will want to barf."

Rachel laughed, leaned into Quinn wrapping her arms around the Cheerio's waist. "I'm so glad that you're carrying the books. I think the weight of the books is making me shorter."

The blonde laughed heartily and squeezed Rachel, "Well you don't have to worry about looking like a third grader."

A beeping sounded and Rachel pulled away to get her phone out of her pocket. She smiled at her phone and then back at Quinn, "I have to go."

"Go where?"

Rachel kissed her lightly and then put her phone back into her pocket, "I have to finish preparing for our date tonight. Don't tell me you forgot."

"Of course not," Quinn smiled, watching Rachel move toward the door.

"I'll pick you up at seven thirty," Rachel answered. She pointed her finger at Quinn, "Be ready."

"What do I wear?" Quinn asked.

Rachel thought for a moment, "Something comfortable."

"I hope you caught the fireflies," Quinn added with a playful smile.

Rachel shot Quinn a wink, "Of course I did." She flashed a perfect smile at Quinn before descending the stairs.


	20. Chapter 20

Super fluffy chapter. The next one will have a little more drama. Thanks for all the reading and reviewing.

* * *

At seven thirty on the dot, the doorbell rang. Quinn practically ran down the stairs, but her mom beat her to the door.

"I got it," Quinn called trying to get her mom to leave.

Her mom gave her a knowing smile and held up a camera, "I want to have a picture of your first date."

"This isn't my first date," Quinn frowned. She didn't even ask how her mom knew it was their first date (although all the time that Quinn took getting ready was a great indicator). She was just happy that her mom wasn't flipping out that she was going out with another girl.

"It's your first date with Rachel," her mom replied, "I want pictures."

"Mom!" the Cheerio squealed.

They could hear Rachel laughing on the other side of the door and Judy laughed with her, opening the door while Quinn blushed profusely.

Rachel had two bouquets of flowers in her hand and smiled at the Fabray women. "Good evening."

"Rachel," Judy smiled at her, "How nice to see you."

"These are for you," Rachel handed Judy one of the bouquets.

"How thoughtful," Judy smiled at her and stepped back so Rachel could come in. Rachel finally saw Quinn standing nervously behind her mom. Rachel let out a sweet smile, "Hey."

"Hey," Quinn replied, smoothing out her floral sundress. She folded her hands in front of her, tilted her head down, her curled blonde hair falling around her face. She didn't know why she was nervous. All the huge milestones in their relationship had been marked. They'd held hands, kissed, and had sex (mind-blowing if Quinn did say so herself). There was no reason for her to be nervous, but she was.

"These are for you," Rachel offered the other flowers, finding it absolutely endearing that Quinn was nervous.

"Thank you," Quinn took them, her finger lightly brushing Rachel's. She smiled at the touch the knowing look in Rachel's eyes.

"Okay pictures," Judy called and moved Quinn next to Rachel.

The girls smiled, Quinn's was dreamy and euphoric and Rachel's was just elated while Judy snapped away.

"Okay, you two should get doing," Judy smiled at them, putting the camera down. She hugged Rachel, "Thank you for the flowers."

"It was my pleasure," Rachel smiled. She held out her hand for Quinn who had set her flowers in an empty vase of the entry hallway. The blonde took Rachel's hand threading her fingers with the singer's. Rachel paused after she stepped out of the house. She looked back at Judy, "What time does she need to be home?"

Judy thought about it for a few seconds before answering, "Midnight."

"Yes ma'am," Rachel smiled, "Goodnight." She led Quinn out to the car.

"My mom must love you," Quinn put her free hand on the bend of Rachel's arm, "My normal curfew on dates is ten."

Rachel opened the passenger door for Quinn and answered as the blonde slid into the seat. She just let out a lopsided smile. She was a little taken by the way Quinn looked and the obvious effort she put into getting ready. She couldn't help but add, "You look beautiful."

The telltale pink of a blush floated onto Quinn's cheeks, "Thank you."

Normally Rachel would have been fishing for a compliment of her own, but she didn't wait for Quinn to add anything else. She was happy that Quinn was happy so she closed the door and got into the driver's seat.

"Rachel?" Quinn said when Rachel had settled in and started the car.

"Hmm?" Rachel looked over at the blonde.

Quinn leaned forward and pressed her lips to Rachel's, "We haven't left the driveway and this is already the best date I've ever been on."

Rachel giggled, "Quinn. That's sad."

The blonde laughed and took Rachel's hand as they started driving.

When they stopped, Quinn saw that they were at Rachel's house. "We're having a date at your house?"

"Yes," Rachel nodded, "But it's better than it sounds." She got out of the car and opened Quinn's door for her.

Quinn smiled at Rachel, "You really don't have to do that."

"Yes I do," Rachel nodded and took Quinn's hand leading her to the side of the house, "Because I expect it when you take me out on a date."

Quinn chuckled and followed Rachel through the open gate. When Quinn got a chance to take in the whole backyard her mouth dropped open. Under the biggest tree in the backyard, was a checkered blanket with a picnic basket set on top of it. In and dangling from the trees were strands of small lights that were slowly fading on and off.

"It looks like fireflies," Quinn breathed and walked toward the blanket. She looked up in the trees, mesmerized by the lights going on and off.

Rachel smiled at Quinn's reaction. That was worth almost falling out of the tree twice and having to bribe Puck to bring over his ladder. She walked to the blanket and kicked off her flats, taking a seat on the blanket.

"This is…" Quinn looked down at Rachel, seeing the lights twinkle in Rachel's eyes. The blonde didn't even finish her sentence. She sank to her knees and held Rachel's face in her hands, kissing her deeply.

When Quinn pulled away, a blissful smile was on her lips, "This is amazing, Rach."

"I'm glad you like it," Rachel smiled. She opened the basket next to her and extracted two glasses. She pulled out a thermos and poured a champagne colored drink in both of them. She handed one to Quinn and continued to pull out all kinds of food, setting it in front of Quinn.

Quinn looked suspiciously at the drink and sniffed it. Then she smiled, "Apple juice."

"The color compliments the color of the food," Rachel smiled, a little bashfully, "And we're too young for champagne."

Quinn looked at the food set out and then back at her drink. Rachel had a point and that was definitely not something she'd noticed before. It must be one of those bizarre things that only Rachel ever plans, but it was sweet nonetheless.

"I hate to disappoint you, but I doubt I'll ever be able to top this," Quinn tilted her head to the side, picking up a small container. She examined the contents and picked up a piece of the food.

"You don't have to," Rachel smiled, "I'll just be happy to be with you. Unless we're bowling. Even your dazzling eyes cannot distract me from that fact that I'm wearing shoes hundreds of people have before me and that you expect me to stick my fingers into some dark germ infested ball that smells like my Uncle Martin."

Quinn giggled. She did happen to pick up that Rachel complimented her in that verbal mess. "Okay, so no bowling. Got it."

They ate their food, quietly chatting about anything and everything. The sun had completely set by the time they finished dinner and Rachel had put everything back in the basket. She stood up and unplugged the lights in the trees, sending them into darkness. In the faint moonlight, she grabbed Quinn's hand and pulled her out from under the tree before laying down in the grass. Quinn followed suit and scooted close to Rachel. They were both staring up into the starry night.

"This is really the best date ever," Quinn murmured. She tilted her head up and kissed the underside of Rachel's jaw, "People should pay you to do this. And make vegan tapas. Those were amazing."

Rachel smiled and wrapped her arms tighter around Quinn, "I'm glad you enjoyed it."

Quinn scooted up a little and pressed her lips against Rachel's, absorbing all the care that Rachel had put into this.

"Based on tonight, do you suppose we'll be going out on more dates?" Rachel asked, kissing Quinn's forehead.

The blonde moved her head to rest on Rachel's shoulder, "I suppose so." Rachel giggled before Quinn added, "But it's my turn to take you out."

"Where are we going to go?"

"I can't tell you," Quinn answered nuzzling against Rachel's neck.

Rachel smirked, "Because you haven't planned it yet."

"Exactly," the blonde smiled and pressed her lips to Rachel's neck before mumbling, "But I'll blow you away."

"Good," the brunette moved her hand to Quinn's waist, softly running her thumb over the material of her sundress.

After they laid out for a while, Rachel's phone went off. She stood up and told Quinn it was time to take her home. Quinn found Rachel's will to get her home before her curfew, adorable and it was even more adorable when Rachel walked her to the front door, their hands swaying between them.

"Thank you so much for tonight," Quinn smiled, looking into Rachel's eyes on her front porch.

"It was my pleasure," Rachel looked down at their intertwined hands. She liked the way their hands fit together. It was not only aesthetically pleasing, but it felt really right.

The blonde let go to Rachel's hands and placed her hands on Rachel's hips. The shorter girl looked up at her and closed her eyes as Quinn's lips caressed her own.

Rachel had her hands on the curve of Quinn's neck, tenderly stroking the skin under her thumbs. When she pulled away she smiled at the breathless look on Quinn's face.

"Do you want to come upstairs?" Quinn asked, hopefully.

Rachel patted Quinn's cheek and gave her a peck on the lips, "It's almost midnight on a school night. I should get home."

"But…" Quinn trailed off, trying a pout.

All it managed to do was widen Rachel's smile.

"Fine, but I'm picking you up to take you to school tomorrow," Quinn stated with finality.

Rachel nodded, "Okay." She took a step back from Quinn and descended the stairs to the sidewalk, "Goodnight Quinn."

"Goodnight Rach."


	21. Chapter 21

Rachel could feel Quinn's palm become clammy as they approached the side doors of McKinley High, hand in hand. "We don't have to do this," Rachel said for the fifth time, dropping her hand to her side that was holding open a play that she had been reading since she woke up, "No one has seen us yet."

"No. I want to," Quinn replied, her eyes on the door to the school. She didn't know, but her eyes got wider as they got closer to the door until finally she looked like she was staring down a ghost.

"Quinn," Rachel's sharp voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

Blonde hair flared out as her head snapped into Rachel's direction. Rachel stared hard at Quinn, trying to get her to understand, "If you're scared we can-"

"No," Quinn cut her off, "We're going to do this." The Cheerio grabbed the handle of the door and threw it open, allowing Rachel to walk in, in front of her. Rachel smiled at this, resisting the urge to kiss Quinn for such a chivalrous display.

The looks started the second Quinn took Rachel's hand again, sliding her fingers through the brunette's. Quinn knew that the word would travel faster down the hallways than they could so there was no stopping it now.

Rachel had her nose buried in a script again. She was so entranced in the words that she didn't notice all the whispers and the looks, not that she wasn't already used to them. Rachel continued to blindly let Quinn guide her through the hallways, and took her hand out of Quinn's only to turn the page of her play.

When they stopped at Quinn's locker, Rachel dropped the play to her side, "This is an amazing play. I have got to find a theatre director to put this on."

Quinn opened her locker and shuffled some books around, hoping that Rachel didn't notice that her hands were now shaking. Luckily the play she had bough Rachel was serving as a perfect distraction.

"You'd be the perfect lead," Rachel mentioned resting her head against the open door of Quinn's locker.

The blonde looked questioningly at Rachel, "I don't act."

Rachel let out a small smile, "Then what have you been doing the past two years?"

Quinn glanced at Rachel, knowing that Rachel was right, "I don't act on stage."

"You should," Rachel offered holding the play up, "This would be perfect for you. The coming of age story of a perfectionist writer in New York who is struggling to find herself while finding that her story had come to life. It's sad, it's funny, it's heavy…it's so you."

"I'm not heavy," Quinn bit back a smirk.

Rachel closed the play and slid it into her shoulder bag, "I meant emotionally heavy."

"I know," the blonde let the smirk out and closed her locker. She started walking down the hallway with Rachel next to her. She immediately took Rachel's hand, blocking out the gawking that was taking place all around them.

"Well, well, well," Santana clucked as she walked up, "Look who was finally shoved out of the closet."

Quinn sneered, "It's nice out here. You should join us."

Santana snorted, "Are you for real?"

The blonde slammed her locker shut, "Yeah cause I know it hurts watching that." Quinn pointed to Brittany who was patiently watching a football player flirt with her.

If she hadn't been looking for it, Quinn wouldn't have seen Santana flinch when she saw them.

"It feels like the seconds before a drunken prayer to the porcelain god," Quinn paused, lurking behind Santana, "Then you swallow it, thinking that it'll all go away." The blonde shook her head. She placed a hand on Santana's shoulder, "but it follows you the rest of the day and into the night until you see her and she smiles at you...that special smile that you know is just for you."

Santana shook her head trying to shake the eerie feeling of Quinn describing exactly how she felt at that moment. She didn't even look at Quinn before stalking off. Brittany saw it and trotted off after her, leaving the football player mid-sentence.

Quinn sighed. Even the weird looks didn't overshadow the pain of seeing Rachel with Finn. She was ecstatic that the monstrosity of the boy knew that R was now hers.

A hand appeared in hers, pulling her out of her thoughts. Rachel was walking by her and just grabbed her hand, dragging her along.

"If you keep checking out Santana then you're going to be late to class," Rachel teased.

"I wasn't checking her out," Quinn stated, "I was merely point out that Brittany was flirting with some guy."

"Quinn, that's mean," Rachel scolded with a decided frown, "Why do you two hate each other?"

"I don't hate her...we're more frienemies. I was just trying to get her to commit to Brittany."

"I don't think anyone could be more committed."

"How do you figure?" Quinn asked, "Santana sleeps around, even with Brittany."

"Why does she do that?" Rachel asked in the way she did when she was taking her time getting to her point.

"Brittany told me it had something to do with lizards. I dunno." The Cheerio shrugged.

"I know for a fact that Brittany hasn't slept around as much as everyone thinks. Sure she's kissed most people in the school, but...guys think Santana is sexy and she's feared. How easy would it be for Brittany to tumble down the social ladder if Santana didn't hold her pinkie on the top?" Rachel stood on her toes and kissed Quinn's cheek, "Have a good class."

Suddenly, the whirlwind that was Rachel disappeared down the hallway and Quinn found herself abandoned in front of her class.

"C'mon Quinn," Brittany grinned walking past her and grabbing her arm, "We're gonna be late."

Quinn settled in the back of the classroom thinking. She dwelled on what Rachel had said. She wondered if she could convince Santana that it was worth the momentary sink in social status. She and Rachel walked in this morning, hand in hand and for the first few periods of the day people looked at them funny, but now no one really noticed. That was the thing about high school. Scandals burn hot and usually only for a couple hours. Quinn didn't notice anyone treat her differently. Mostly because she only really interacted with the glee kids and she hadn't seen any of them, except for Santana and Brittany, yet. And that smug smirk she threw at Finn when he gawked at them.

"What's up Q?" Brittany slid her chair closer to Quinn and rested her chin on Quinn's shoulder, looking at her paper. She missed how affectionate Brittany was when Santana wasn't around. Speaking of, "Where's S?"

"She's on the treadmill," Brittany sighed. She picked up what Quinn had been drawing. "Why did you write my name?"

"I was thinking about you," Quinn let out a smile. Only Brittany wouldn't take someone writing their name in bubble letters the wrong way. "Do you like S?"

Brittany looked at Quinn with amused look, "Of course I do."

"I mean like her like her," Quinn added quietly.

The dancer withdrew from Quinn and sort of folded into herself. Her voice was barely audible when she said, "Santana told me not to say anything if anyone asked."

"C'mon B," Quinn scooted close to Brittany, "It's me. I'm totally dating Rachel now. I don't care about that stuff anymore."

"I love her," Brittany whispered.

Quinn nodded, her suspicions confirmed. She rubbed Brittany's arm. "It's okay B."

The taller girl leaned over and placed her head on Quinn's shoulder taking the pencil that was in Quinn's hand and wrote a heart under her name and then started scrawling out S-A-N-T-A-N-A.

Quinn smiled at Brittany and hugged her, "Santana will come around Brit. I promise. She loves you though. I know it."

Brittany nodded with a sigh, "Yeah. I know." She sat up, "Anyway, how's Rachel?"

Quinn couldn't stop a smile, "She's pretty awesome."

"Santana said since she's wears those weird clothes and is the way she is then she's probably freaky in bed," Brittany offhandedly added.

Quinn was sure if she was offended or proud of the fact that Santana was thinking about her girlfriend and her sexual prowess. Of course Santana was right, but she wasn't going to say it out loud. Oh the things Rachel could do with her tongue…

"Q?" Brittany asked with an amused smile.

"Huh?" Quinn snapped out of Rachelworld and looked up at the blonde who was standing.

"The bell rang."

"Oh," Quinn gathered her things and stood up.

When she walked into the hallway, she found Rachel talking to Puck across the hallway. She walked right up to them and slid her arm around Rachel's waist only catching the tail end of what Rachel was saying, "So if you have any ideas let me know."

"Strippers," he smirked. Then he hitched his chin to Quinn, "Hey Q."

"No strippers," Rachel unconsciously leaned into Quinn's touch, "It's not a bachelor party."

"What's not?" Quinn asked.

Rachel shook her head, "Nothing important." She kissed Quinn's cheek and looked back to Puck, "Just something Noah wants to ruin with half-naked women on poles."

"It won't ruin it," Puck smirked at them, "We might not even have to pay for it. We can just get Brittany a couple shots of tequila. Voila. Instant stripper."

"Noah!" Rachel frowned at him and was about to reprimand him when Santana came out of seemingly nowhere. She jumped on him in a way that Rachel could only describe as very spider-monkey.

Quinn made sure Rachel was out of the way before pulling Santana off of the poor boy who said the wrong thing as the two Cheerios walked past him.

"Take it back!" Santana yelled at him trying to get away from Quinn. This was a whole level of crazy that no one was used to, even from Santana.

"Okay, okay I take it back," Puck pressed himself against the lockers trying to get away.

"If you like your man parts you'd better get out of here," Quinn struggled to hold Santana back. Puck tried to walk down the hallway like he wasn't worried, but he walked faster than usual.

"Santana!" Coach Sylvester barked from the end of the hallway.

She immediately stopped struggling and looked to her coach, terrified. Quinn's arms dropped from around Santana and she took a step back. Her heart was pounding with terror. She felt a comforting, subtle hand on the small of her back. She tried to draw some strength from it.

"Teen Mom, Fun-Bags," Coach Sylvester frowned, "My office." She turned around and stalked off.

"Way to go," Quinn hissed at Santana, although she couldn't say she wouldn't have done the same thing if Puck had said that about Rachel.

Santana kicked a locker and stalked off toward the office, "I don't need your shit Fabray."

Quinn scanned the hallway and her eyes found Brittany who was standing against the lockers on the other side of the hallway. "Puck's an ass."

Brittany nodded, not showing any emotions. She just watched Santana disappear down the hallway.

"Can you do me a favor be and take Rachel to our table?" Quinn asked, glancing at the short brunette that was by her side. "I'm sure this won't take long."

Brittany looked back at Quinn and nodded.

Quinn looked back at Rachel, "You okay?"

"Quite," Rachel let out a weak smile and reached up to fix Quinn's ponytail. After it was back in place and her bangs were where they were supposed to be Rachel added, "You should probably go. Coach Sylvester didn't look happy."

Quinn blew out a stream of air, "I'll meet you in the cafeteria as soon as I can okay?" She dipped down to steal a kiss from Rachel before grabbing her stuff and following Santana, not waiting for answer.

Rachel smiled after Quinn. She figured this was what recreational drugs felt like. She never had or never would do drugs, but if drugs made people feel like she did every time she kissed Quinn, then she knew why people did them.

Brittany escorted Rachel to the popular table in the cafeteria. She received mixed greetings. Most the guys were cool with her being there and some of the Cheerios didn't mind. The glares and whispers directed at her didn't bother her because they came from the same Cheerios that usually slushied her.

"Hey Rachel," Finn said nervously across the long table.

"Hello Finn," she smiled at him. She suddenly wondered why he never bothered to try to introduce her to the popular table.

Puck walked up to the table and looked around, "Where's Santana?"

"Coach Sylvester's office," Rachel answered.

Puck looked at Brittany, "Hey, I'm sorry. That was mean. I'll probably get drunk and naked at Quinn's birthday party first anyway."

"You most certainly will not," Rachel frowned at him.

"Quinn's birthday party?" one of the Cheerios asked, "When is it?"

"It's not for another forty-seven days, but in order to make up for her last birthday I'm going to make sure her next birthday is the best one she's ever had," Rachel evenly explained, "Hence, I'm starting to plan now."

A round of 'aww's came from most of the Cheerios. Rachel found herself blushing at the sentiment. She definitely hadn't expected that.

"I wanna help," a redheaded Cheerio offered.

"Yeah me too," came from a Cheerio a few people down.

A few of the jocks offered to help as well. They all exchanged phone numbers and Rachel swore them all to secrecy.

"We could start a band," Puck offered, gesturing between him and Finn, "And learn all her favorite songs."

"Perfect," Rachel started jotting down notes as the discussion ballooned over the table.

"Are you going to sing her a song?" Brittany asked, picking at her fries.

"Of course," Rachel answered with a smile, hoping to get Brittany to smile. Since Santana was called to the office, she hadn't been engaged in the conversation.

"Guys she's coming," the redheaded Cheerio hushed the entire table as Quinn and Santana walked in.

Rachel quickly turned the page in her notebook to hide her notes and everyone else tried to start up conversations about things that had nothing to do with birthdays or parties.

Quinn walked up behind Rachel and looked at the football player that was sitting next to her. "Scooch."

The boy moved over and Quinn sat down next to Rachel.

"How'd it go?" Rachel asked, sliding her water bottle in front of Quinn.

The blonde picked it up and took a sip. She shrugged, "It was just to inform us that Nationals this year at in New York."

Rachel's eyes lit up, "Two competitions in New York. That's wonderful. I've never gotten to spend that much time in New York."

"You're coming?" Quinn asked questioningly.

"Of course I am," Rachel grinned, "It's the perfect excuse to peruse Broadway and Julliard and supporting you of course." Rachel watched Quinn take another drink before adding, "My aunt has an apartment in Manhattan so I can stay with her. Then I can show you my favorite vegan restaurant in the Upper West Side…"

This was the part where everyone else usually tuned Rachel out, but Quinn just smiled and nodded, continuing to listen to everything Rachel had to say, which was always a lot.

"Do you ever breathe?" Santana asked, interrupting Rachel.

Quinn shot her a glare, "Shut up Santana."

"Whatever," Santana rolled her eyes, "I'm outta here." She stood up and walked out of the cafeteria with Brittany on her heels.

Rachel shook her head after them, "What's wrong with her?"

"Who knows?" Quinn asked, resting her chin on Rachel's shoulder. She reached around Rachel and stole a grape off of her plate.

"Are you going to get your own food or shall I start making two lunches in the morning?" Rachel asked with a smile.

Quinn smiled and kissed the side of Rachel's head, "Nah, but I do love all those weird vegan foods you eat." Quinn took another grape and popped it in her mouth, "Oh yeah, what are your plans for tomorrow night?"

Rachel thought for a moment although she knew if she had something to do that night and Quinn wanted to do something with her then she'd blow off her plans. "I don't think so."

"Good," Quinn looked around the table and then back at Rachel, "I'm taking you out."

Rachel beamed, "Perfect."

Quinn turned to one of the Cheerios at the end of the table and started talking about official Cheerios business. Rachel knew not to interrupt such things. Not that Quinn would get mad at her, it was just important for Quinn to finish her business so that when she was done, she would focus on Rachel again.

"So," Finn attempted a conversation with Rachel, "Did the whole bet thing get you and Quinn together?"

Rachel nodded, "Yeah. After the kiss that won the bet we just kinda stayed friends. I got really confused and we didn't walk for a while." She glanced at Quinn who was still engrossed in a different story, "It just sorta happened."

Finn knew better than to ask Rachel if she cheated on him. That was the kind of drama he was hoping to avoid. He'd dealt with Rachel breaking up with him and now with the fact that most of the guys in the locker room were telling him that he was so bad in bed he turned girls gay. Of course when he told them that he didn't actually get Rachel into bed, then there was a whole other slew of insults as to whether or not he was gay. Anyway, he didn't want to know. In fact he figured that the less he knew about his two ex-girlfriends getting together, the better.

Rachel felt delicate fingers trailing up and down her back. She closed her eyes and smiled at Quinn's obvious uncaring if anyone saw her PDA. She leaned into Quinn and picked up the blonde's hand, kissing the back of her hand. "I-" Rachel started to say, but remember her promise to Quinn. She wouldn't drop the three little words on Quinn before her birthday. But it was getting so hard.

"What babe?" Quinn asked pulling away to hear Rachel better.

The shorter girl shook her head, "Nothing." She smiled at Quinn, "I, however, need to get to the library and print off my English paper."

"I'll come with you," Quinn offered.

Rachel didn't stop the blonde because she knew that the library was empty during most of the day, especially at lunch. And as it turned out, she didn't really have an English paper.


	22. Chapter 22

Rachel was starting to love school. Of course she loved the academia and glee before, but she loved school as a whole now. Quinn had quashed any idea anyone had of slushying her and had been helping her start dressing well (if Quinn couldn't wear her quite fashionable clothes to school, then someone would). They soon became one of the school's power couples next to Puck and Lauren, Finn and some random Cheerio, and Brittany and Santana (they weren't together though! They're just 'friends'.)

"Guess what tomorrow is," Quinn sang as she walked up to Rachel's locker.

Rachel pretended to think by tapping her chin before consulting the (not kitten) couples calendar that she made for both of them.

The tapping of Quinn's foot made her giggle as she pointed her finger to the right day. She feigned a gasp and looked to Quinn, "Oh gosh it looks like it's your birthday."

Quinn poked her in the ribs, "You know what tomorrow is."

"Of course I do," Rachel smiled.

"So what are the plans?" the blonde leaned on the locker next to Rachel's. She lowered her voice considerably and smirked, "Because I know what I want for my birthday."

"Oh really?" Rachel asked with a mischievous grin, "And what would that be?"

Quinn leaned forward and whispered in the most seductive voice she could muster, "I want….an ice cream cake."

Rachel laughed and threw her arms around Quinn. She knew what Quinn really wanted. She'd been shunning Quinn's advances for two weeks because she had something extra special planned for her birthday and she was sure Quinn knew that too. "An ice cream cake can be arranged." She pulled back, "And if you're a good girl, you might get what you actually want."

Quinn slipped her arm behind Rachel and pulled the shorter girl to her, planting a baiting kiss on her lips. As she pulled away Rachel followed her, keeping their lips together. Quinn felt two soft hands thread together behind her neck.

Mr. Schue clearing this throat as he walked by pulled them apart. Rachel smiled sheepishly while Quinn admired how adorable Rachel was. Mr. Schue chuckled and shook his head. He wasn't sure how the two girls went from fighting over Finn to getting together but he didn't mind. The inner-glee fighting had been kept to a minimum and every time Rachel and Mercedes would start to diva out, Quinn would diffuse the situation with a soft murmur in Rachel's ear. And Quinn's witty, albeit mean quips were almost non-existent.

Luckily, Quinn's birthday fell on a Friday, which made Rachel's scheming all that much easier. Friday morning, Rachel used her key to open the front door of the Fabray house. Judy had given it to her for this specific purpose, but Rachel prayed that Judy forgot to ask for it back. There was something special about having a key to her girlfriend's house, especially since it was given to her by her girlfriend's mom.

Rachel tried to be as quiet as possible as she lugged in the food that she brought with her. She closed the door and locked it back before making her way to the kitchen. Rachel flipped on the coffee machine because Fabray women couldn't function without the boost first thing in the morning. She got to cooking and occasionally glanced up at the looked at the clock. She had plenty of time to get this all done and ready before she woke Quinn up.

At exactly six forty-two, Rachel picked up her phone and called Quinn.

She was answered with something akin to a "Hmmph."

"Good morning beautiful," Rachel cooed into the phone as she hoped that Quinn wouldn't notice that her favorite breakfast was made positively vegan. Rachel stood in the grocery store for a good half hour staring at the rows of egg cartons but just couldn't bring herself to buy them.

"Hey," Quinn sounded more lucid, but only slightly.

"Happy birthday," Rachel added, "Although your mother informed me that you won't be seventeen until five thirty-seven this evening."

Quinn giggled into the phone. "Thanks Rach." There was a pause on the phone, "My mom must be making breakfast because it smells really good."

"That's nice of her," Rachel smiled to herself, "Must be a special birthday breakfast."

Rachel could hear the rustling of Quinn's sheets and figured she was getting out of bed. "I hope so. I'm starving."

"You always are first thing in the morning," Rachel remembered the last time she spent the night; Quinn had already downed a bowl and a half of cereal before Rachel was out of bed.

"Hold on, I'm gonna put you on speaker so I can brush my teeth," Rachel heard a click and then heard the sink come on in Quinn's bathroom.

"What are you going to wear on this so special of days?" Rachel asked as Judy walked into the kitchen. Rachel pointed to the table where she had already poured Judy's coffee and breakfast was waiting.

"Oh I don't know," Quinn answered after she'd finished, "Probably that purple fringy dress with my white sweater. What are you going to wear?"

Judy smiled, "You're so sweet Rachel." She took a sip of her coffee and got up to hug the girl.

"Is that my mom?" a slow smile spread across her face when she heard what she was sure was her mom's voice.

"Oh I don't know," Rachel giggled, "You know how there are always random moms walking around your kitchen."

Quinn bolted out of her room and ran down the stairs before sliding to a stop in the kitchen. She looked at the table that was set for three. There was French toast stacked on every plate and orange juice was next to a steaming cup of coffee. Next to one of the plates was a white rose.

Quinn hung up her phone the second she spotted Rachel and threw her arms around the shorter girl, "This is amazing Rach."

"Happy birthday," Rachel gently squeezed Quinn.

At school, everyone wished Quinn a happy birthday. Rachel and a bunch of Quinn's friends took Quinn out to lunch where they all wore cheap cardboard hats and took too many pictures.

"Today was like the best birthday ever," Quinn swung their joined hands between them on the way to glee.

"It's not even close to over yet either," Rachel smiled and pulled Quinn past the music room.

"It's not," Quinn furrowed her eyebrows and glanced back at the door to the music room, "We passed glee."

"We're meeting in the auditorium," Rachel stated, "And of course not. Two of your favorite meals and a nice day at school does not a birthday make."

"What else is there?" Quinn asked, stopping in the middle of the hallway.

Rachel stopped because her hand was attached to Quinn's. She turned around the shimmied up to Quinn, "There's the party."

"What party?"

"The party I've been planning for two months," Rachel grinned and stood on her toes to place a sweet kiss on Quinn's lips. "You'll love it."

"Or I could take you back to my house and we could have some alone time," Quinn smiled, kissing Rachel again. This time she deepened the kiss, running her tongue alone Rachel's bottom lip before slowly sucking on it.

Rachel moaned, but pulled away, "We have to get to glee." She swatted Quinn's arm, "You don't play fair. You know I love it when you do that."

Quinn smirked, "I know." She leaned back down to capture Rachel's lips, but Rachel dodged it.

"After glee," Rachel took Quinn's hand and drug her off down the hallway.

"Can we just skip it?" Quinn whined, "It's my birthday."

"Quinn Fabray!" Rachel started a lecture as they neared the auditorium, "No matter what day it is, I would never, ever skip glee because-"

"I know," Quinn smiled at her girlfriend because it was cute when she rambled, "You wouldn't miss it if your hair was on fire."

"You better knock on wood missy," Rachel glanced at Quinn with a smile before pushing open the auditorium doors.

Quinn laughed and knocked on the door as they walked in.

Inside they found that the whole glee club was already assembled. They were standing around talking amongst themselves.

Everyone grew quiet when they walked in. Quinn looked around and then to Rachel, "What's going on?"

Rachel smiled and nodded to Brad who was behind the piano. He started playing and Rachel pulled Quinn into the group. They all started humming to the music and on cue Rachel started singing.

_You know it doesn't make much sense_  
_There ought to be a law against_  
_Anyone who takes offense_  
_At a day in your celebration_  
_Cause we all know in our minds_  
_That there ought to be a time_  
_That we can set aside_  
_To show just how much we love you_  
_And I'm sure you would agree_  
_It couldn't fit more perfectly_  
_Than to have a world party on the day you came to be_

_Happy birthday to you_  
_Happy birthday to you_  
_Happy birthday_

The tempo of the song changed dramatically and Artie rolled forward to started singing with Rachel. Everyone started jumping up and down, dancing improvisation ally around the stage around Quinn and Rachel.

_You say it's your birthday_  
_It's my birthday too, yeah_  
_They say it's your birthday_  
_We're gonna have a good time_  
_I'm glad it's your birthday_  
_Happy birthday to you._

_Yes we're going to a party party_  
_Yes we're going to a party party_  
_Yes we're going to a party party_

_I would like you to dance (Birthday)_  
_Take a cha-cha-cha-chance (Birthday)_  
_I would like you to dance (Birthday)_  
_Dance_

Then the music grew slower and Santana and Brittany stepped up behind Rachel to sing with her to Quinn. The rest of the group just swayed around them.

_The time has come and its finally here_  
_Have a candle lit dinner_  
_Or just settle down my dear_  
_Whatever you like boy_  
_Its all up to you_  
_We could celebrate baby_  
_Cause(it's your birthday)_  
_Now close your eyes baby_  
_And listen to the melody_  
_Anything you want me sweet just ask me_  
_It's the day for us to share_  
_So leave your problems up to me_  
_Let start you and me_  
_And make this day history_

_Its your birthday(we could spend time together)_  
_We gonna celebrate(you and me)_  
_It's your birthday(so baby blow out the candles)_  
_We gonna celebrate(you know)_  
_It's your birthday_

When the song was over everyone started laughing and tears were running down Quinn's face. She grabbed Rachel in a fierce hug and held her close while they group piled on around them in the biggest glee group hug of all time.

After a few minutes of hugging everyone and thanking them for the song, Quinn pulled Rachel to her again holding the smaller girl against her body, "You are seriously the best, greatest, most perfect, best, amazingest girlfriend ever."

"You said best twice and made up a word," Rachel giggled against Quinn's shoulder.

"You're that awesome," Quinn kissed Rachel's forehead.

"It's time to go," Puck called from the door, Lauren's hand in his.

"Go where?"

"Party baby," Rachel kissed Quinn one last time before dragging her outside.

Rachel led the blonde out to the parking lot where everyone was piling into cars. Santana and Brittany got into Quinn's car and Rachel slid into the driver's seat, confusing the blonde, but Rachel gave her an assuring smile and plucked the keys out of Quinn's hand. Her phone buzzing in her hand brought her out of her thoughts. After Rachel read a text and sent one back, Rachel started the car and pulled out.

"Ke$ha!" Brittany squealed and leaned forward in the backseat to turn up the music.

Rachel smiled and rolled down the windows. The late fall air was cool against their faces and blew the hair around. Rachel smiled when Brittany started dancing in the backseat. Santana and Quinn were quick to follow. This was amazing to Rachel. She'd never had a lot of friends that were girls…hell she'd never had that many friends anyway, but she felt more like a normal teenage when she was hanging out with Quinn and her friends than she ever had.

Quinn had turned out to be such a blessing in her life. Rachel felt at ease with herself and all the people around her. She now had friends. Not deep, close friends, but there were people who would say hi to her in the hallway and who would let her borrow their notes if she missed class. She felt comfortable at school and had no fear of being slushied or bullied in anyway. Of course there was also the whole head over heels for the girl in the passenger's seat. Rachel finally felt content with life.

"Here Q," Santana tossed a small duffle back into Quinn's lap.

Quinn opened the bag and found her bikini on it. She first wondered how Santana got a hold of it then wondered what it was for. "Are we going swimming?"

"If you want," Rachel offered. She pulled to a stop and Quinn looked up from her bikini and realized where they were. She saw that they were at a small river that ran along the outskirts of Lima. Not only were they at the river, Quinn saw that there were paper lanterns hanging in and around the trees that hovered over tables surrounded by white wooden chairs. Some of Quinn's friends and family had already arrived and there were multiple grills fired up all over the place. There was a stage set up off to the side where Artie was directing the setting up of instruments.

"What is this?" Quinn asked.

"It's a birthday party Q," Santana opened her door and got out, stripping off her top as she went. Brittany followed her and they both stripped down to the bikinis they were wearing under their clothes.

They watched from the safety of the car as Puck ran toward the water, sans his shirt and jumped in. Brittany and Santana jumped in, holding hands all the way down.

"This is…" Quinn started. Rachel looked over at Quinn when the blonde sniffled. There were tears running down Quinn's face.

Rachel moved the middle console up so she could scoot over closer to Quinn. She wrapped the blonde in a tight embrace and kissed her cheek, "What's wrong sweetheart?"

"This is…" Quinn started again, "This is amazing. It's so much more than I expected."

Rachel smiled and pushed Quinn's hair out of her eyes, "I told you. I do birthdays big. Just wait until you turn eighteen."

Quinn laughed through her tears and placed her hand on the back of Rachel's neck, pulling their foreheads together. "I don't think I can ever tell you enough how amazing you are to me."

The brunette dropped a kiss on Quinn's lips and gave her a squeeze before letting go, "Well, I'll never get tired of hearing it." That elicited a smile from Quinn. "C'mon. Let's get to swimming before the sun goes down. You still have a very special present waiting for you at your house, when this party is over. I guess I'll leave you in here to change. When you're done with your swimsuit one of your sundresses is in the trunk."

"You really thought of everything," Quinn smiled and stole a kiss before Rachel could get out.

"I've been planning for two months," the brunette winked at her, "That's a long time to think of everything."

After Quinn changed, a bunch of her friends already in the water and Mike and Puck in the top of the biggest tree tying a rope to one of the branches. She scanned the whole crowd and found Rachel in a bikini peering over her dad's shoulder as she flipped things on the grill.

She walked over to Rachel and wrapped her arms around the girl's waist. Rachel smiled and leaned back into her. Her dad turned around when Rachel stopped telling him the exact time to cook the black bean burgers at.

"Hey Quinn," he smiled, "Happy birthday."

"Thanks Mr. Berry," Quinn smiled back.

Rachel took Quinn's hand and pulled her toward the water. Quinn jumped in and started swimming around with her friends before she pulled Rachel in. The shorter girl tried to be mad, but Quinn reminded her it was her birthday and she wasn't allowed to be mad at her.

The sun set and the food was consumed. Everyone was sitting around, having a good time. Rachel smiled because she knew the party was a success and she hadn't even gotten to her extra special present for Quinn.

"You ready?" Puck rested a hand on her shoulder. The mowhawked boy had refused to put a shirt back on after swimming which was fine with his girlfriend and every other girl in the place with the exception of Quinn and Rachel (and two unnamed Cheerios that were currently making out on the other side of the river).

Rachel nodded. She stood from the table that she had been sitting at with some of the other gleeks. When she got to the stage, she immediately saw Quinn who was sporting the white sundress Rachel brought for her. Her hair was up in the messy bun with strands falling out all over the place. It took Rachel's breath away just looking at her. She let out a small smile and stepped up to the microphone.

"Hey everyone," Rachel looked out over the crowd of people, "I'd just like to say one last, very special happy birthday to Quinn before I release you all to enjoy the rest of your Friday night." Rachel found Quinn in the crowd again, "So happy birthday Quinn. You make the world a better place with your mere presence."

Everyone cheered and clapped, yelling happy birthday. Quinn blushed and bowed her heart quietly thanking everyone.

"Okay," Rachel smiled at the adorable display, "I'm going to embarrass Quinn one last time with a song before the final display of the evening is set off."

Quinn put her hand to her chest and swayed as the music started. Rachel brought the microphone to her lips and started to sing.

_Deep within your heart, you know it's plain to see_  
_Like Adam was to Eve, you were made for me_  
_They say the poisoned vine, breeds a finer wine_  
_Our love is easy_

_If you ask me plainly, I would gladly say_  
_I'd like to have you round just for them rainy days_  
_I like the touch of your hand_  
_The way you make no demands_  
_Our love is easy_

_Our love is easy_  
_Like water rushing over stone_  
_Oh, our love is easy_  
_Like no love, I've ever known_

_Physically speaking, we were made to last_  
_Examine all the pieces of our recent past_  
_There's your mouth of tears_  
_Your hands around my waist_  
_Our love is easy_

_Every time we meet, it's like the first we kiss_  
_Never growing tired of this endlessness_  
_It's a simple thing, we don't need a ring_  
_Our love is easy_

_Our love is easy_  
_Like water rushing over stone_  
_Oh, our love is easy_  
_Like no love, I've ever known_

The entire crowd applauded and Quinn jumped up onto her stage. She nearly toppled them both over with her urgency. She squeezed Rachel hard against her. Rachel kissed Quinn's neck and whispered, "You're so beautiful."

Quinn was about to answer when they heard a bubble of oohs and ahhs come from the crowd. Quinn looked up and saw that above the trees there were fireworks going off.

"How did you get fireworks?" Quinn squealed, her whole face lighting up.

Rachel stepped behind Quinn and wrapped her arms around the blonde from behind. She rested her chin on Quinn's shoulder, "I know people."

After the short fireworks display everyone started to leave. Some people started to clean up, but Quinn and Rachel stayed on the stage, just holding each other.

"You ready for your present?" Rachel whispered in Quinn's ear.

"There's a present after all this?" Quinn asked, tilting her head back, "I don't know if I can take anymore."

Rachel grinned, "Well I can just not give it to you."

"No I want it," Quinn stated and started walking, grabbing Rachel's hand as they walked. "Let's go."

The drive to Quinn's house was silent. Just the whirl of the engine filled the car. Quinn kept Rachel's hand in her own, making sure they were in constant contact.

Quinn's mom was still cleaning up the party mess as were Rachel's dads. They all volunteered to stay and seemed reluctant to accept Rachel's explanation that she had left Quinn's present in Quinn's room, but in the end (after a Fabray/Berry parent huddle) they all shrugged and let the girls go.

Once at the house, Quinn got out of the car and rushed to Rachel's side as the shorter girl got out of the car. She pinned Rachel to the car in a searing kiss. Rachel ran her hands up Quinn's sides and sighed into the kiss.

"Baby, I really, really wanna give you your present," Rachel explained as Quinn trailed kisses down her neck.

"You mean you're not my present?" Quinn looked disappointed and started her way to the front door, grabbing Rachel's hand on the way.

Rachel grinned, "I may be one of your presents depending on how you react to the real one."

"You mean you got me like an actual present?" Quinn asked opening the front door, "After all that?"

"Of course I did," Rachel answered, as if it was obvious. She pulled Quinn to her room and sat her down on the bed, not turning the lights on. Quinn laid back on the bed, her head propped up by several pillows. Rachel walked around the room lighting candles that she had put out earlier in the morning as Quinn was in the shower getting ready. Then she went to Quinn's closet to get the present she hid there that morning as well.

"What are you doing?" Quinn called from her position on the bed. She was sure as soon as the candles were lit, Rachel would be all hers.

"I'm getting your present," Rachel reiterated. After another minute or so she returned with a small rectangular box. "You're a very impatient person Quinn Fabray."

The blonde looked at the box in Rachel's hand. Then she looked to Rachel, "You actually got me something."

"I've been trying to tell you that," Rachel crawled onto the bed next to Quinn with a mischievous smile.

The blonde sat up and turned to face Rachel. When Rachel offered her the box, she gingerly took it. "I-I thought that we were just going to…you know…"

Rachel chuckled at her assumption and her inability to say 'sex' out loud when talking about herself. Rachel dropped a kiss on the curve of Quinn's neck. "We'll think about the gift of the orgasm after you open your present."

Quinn blushed deeply at this, "I just assumed with all the candles."

"As you know, I'm a very dramatic person Quinn," Rachel explained moving behind Quinn and softly kissing her shoulder, "I just wanted to set the mood for your present, which you haven't opened yet."

The blonde smiled at Rachel's theatricality for a simple present and ran her fingertips over the top of the box. It was obviously jewelry. A necklace or bracelet of some kind. She finally decided to indulge them both and flip open the top.

When she saw what was inside she gasped. She expected some kind of costume jewelry from a department store, but this most certainly was not costume jewelry. The small diamonds lay on top of the tiny silver heart shimmered in the candlelight. Fused with the heart was a gold star.

"It's- how did you afford this?" Quinn asked, turning her head look at Rachel.

Rachel just smiled at her, "Don't worry about it." So what if her allowance was cut in half for the next eighteen months? After a very moving PowerPoint presentation to her dads she might add. It was absolutely worth it to see the look on Quinn's face when she opened it. She kissed the sensitive place right under Quinn's ear.

Quinn leaned back into Rachel and looked back at the necklace. "I want to wear it." She carefully took it out of the box and handed it to Rachel.

Once the necklace clasp closed, Rachel kissed the back of Quinn's neck. Then she rested her chin on Quinn's shoulder again and took both of Quinn's hands in her own. After a few deep breaths she moved around Quinn so that they were facing each other. She suddenly looked nervous, but held Quinn's hazel eyes. Rachel licked her lips and began a speech she'd been preparing for a while. "I looked all over town for the perfect present to get you. It had to be something that meant something. To both of us." She smiled. "I think that it's pretty obvious that the gold star represents me. And the meaning of a heart for thousands of years has meant love." Rachel took Quinn's hands again and caught Quinn's eyes, "I love you Quinn. I couldn't tell you exactly how long I have or when it started, but I know for sure, without a doubt that I am in love with you."

Quinn's eyes shimmered in the soft lighting and when she blinked two tears trailed down her cheeks. She let go of one of Rachel's hands and tenderly cupped Rachel's cheek, running her thumb over the perfect cheekbones belonging to the girl. "Thank you for waiting to tell me." She pulled Rachel to her until her lips brushed against Rachel's in a sweet, chaste kiss. She took a deep breath and let out a smile, "I'm one hundred percent in love with you Rachel."

Rachel slipped her arms around Quinn's neck and hugged her close. She could feel Quinn's body expand and deflate with every breath and she had grown to know and love the rhythm of Quinn's heartbeat.

Finally Rachel pulled away, "Can you stand any more?"

Quinn laughed and nodded, "I think so." She wiped her eyes and watched at Rachel got off of the bed. She walked to the closet and stepped inside. A few seconds later, Rachel stepped out of the closet in nothing but a wine red set of lingerie. She smiled at the look on the blonde's face when she saw her. Quinn's jaw went a little slack and her eyes got glossy.

Rachel walked right over to the bed and straddled Quinn's hips, placing one hand on either side of Quinn's face. She lowered her mouth to Quinn's and kissed her slowly and deeply, drawing out the embrace as long as possible.

When she pulled back, she caught Quinn in awe of the effect of the bra on Rachel's cleavage. "So," Rachel smirked, dipping down to suck on a part of Quinn's neck she had learned made the girl squirm. "Is this what you've been waiting for?"

Quinn moaned and squirmed under Rachel's lips, but managed to answer, "This is just the icing on the cake." She felt Rachel's hand plant itself on her thigh and slowly trail up as Rachel's kisses trailed down. She pushed Quinn's sundress up and over her head before kissing a tail down between Quinn's breasts and back up to her lips

"Would you say you had a good birthday?" Rachel grinned against Quinn's lips.

The blonde ran her hands down Rachel's back, trailing back up her spine and wrapped her fingers in the long brown hair, pulling Rachel in for another earth-shattering kiss. As Rachel moved down her body, kissing her way down Quinn's stomach, she finally answered, "Best birthday ever."

* * *

The birthday songs are by Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, and Destiny's Child respectively.

The song that Rachel sings to Quinn is "Our Love Is Easy" by Melody Gardot

The end.

Hope you enjoyed.


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